In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
Letter To The Editor: Tell Kids The Hard Truth About Israel
In his recent article, “I Support Boycotting Settlements – Should I Be Banned from Israel with my Children?,” Peter Beinart compellingly argues that Israel’s new law, which denies entry to any person who issues a public call for boycotting Israel, including the settlements, will force American Jews to choose between visiting Israel or opposing the…
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Opinion Israel’s Ban Of BDS Supporters Stirs Rather Than Stifles Debate
The Israeli Knesset recently passed a bill that bans entry to Israel of foreign nationals who call for economic, cultural or academic boycotts of either Israel or the territory it controls beyond the Green Line. It’s left me wondering: As a pro-Israel, pro-peace American Jew who is committed to the two-state solution and to opposing…
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Opinion ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ Negates Jewish History
For much of the rest of the spring, students affiliated with chapters of the rabidly anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) will stage events throughout the world marking “Israeli Apartheid Week.” The mission of these odious events, according to organizers, is “to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian…
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Opinion Would Donald Trump Have Sentenced My Rabbi Grandfather To Death?
Twice my grandfather illegally crossed a border seeking sanctuary. President Trump would classify Rabbi Abraham Strassfeld as an “illegal.” Sometime in the 1920s, fed up with economic hardship and pervasive anti-Semitism in Poland, he decided to take his chances in Germany. After sneaking across the border he requested asylum. Lost to family memory is whether…
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Opinion What My Sadly Deformed Hamantaschen Teach Me About Aging
Midway into my first batch, as the rolling pin clumsily turned my dough into something resembling a map of Africa after a multi-year drought, I wondered what I could have possibly been thinking when I agreed to this assignment. This was my first attempt at baking hamantaschen, the triangular-shaped cookies we eat especially at Purim,…
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Opinion How Trump and Democrats Alike Fan Paranoia About Russia
Since paranoia is a defining feature of political life in Russia, perhaps it is only natural that the controversy over Donald Trump’s alleged Russian connections is blurring the lines between paranoia and reality in the United States. Whichever way you look, it’s a vast conspiracy: either to put a Kremlin stooge in the White House,…
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Opinion Why Israel’s Sudden Baseball Prowess Actually Means Something
No, there are no Sabras on the team. In fact, most Israelis are unaware they even have a national baseball team. Or how the game is played. Unlike American football, which attracts a small but growing fan base, baseball is for Israelis what cricket is for Americans: not a thing. Yet suddenly, the Star of…
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Opinion Relatively Easy: How To Produce A Hassle-Free Family Reunion
In 1886, a scared 16-year old named Menachem Mendel Lehrman made his way to the Russian border and sneaked into Germany. In Hamburg he took a ship to New York, a trip that left him so sick he couldn’t write home for a year. Back in Belarus, his family decided he was dead and sat…
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Opinion GamerGate Can Teach Us About Anti-Semitic Attacks
The FBI recently arrested Juan Thompson in connection with eight bomb threats made against Jewish Community Centers. Thompson, a journalist previously fired from The Intercept for fabricating quotes, allegedly made the threats in his ex-girlfriend’s name to harass and intimidate her. Some on the right, who have scoffed at the idea that Trump’s rise has…
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Opinion Israel Criminalizes Thought By Banning BDS Supporters In Orwellian Twist
Israel often markets itself itself as the “only democracy in the Middle East,” but its controversial new law barring Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions supporters from entering the country means that the Holy Land veers toward Orwellian dystopia. Leaving aside one’s feelings about the strategy of peaceful disengagement from the Israeli economy to pressure it to…
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Opinion How Trump Has Spawned A Spiraling Constitutional Crisis We Haven’t Seen Since Civil War
Our republic is in the throes of a historic constitutional crisis — arguably the most serious since the Civil War. If that was not clear January 20, it’s inescapable now. It’s a complex, multilayered crisis unfolding so fast that it’s difficult to keep track of its moving parts. It’s important to watch the big picture,…
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