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
Obama Returns to His Chicago Jewish Roots With Audacity To Hope
With only ten days remaining in his presidency, Barack Obama will take the stage tonight back home in Chicago and bid farewell to the American people. Among those present for the speech will be Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, two main supporters of Obama’s presidential campaigns and crucial movers in his administrations. Obama has indicated…
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Opinion Marvin Hier Must Rise Above Being ‘Donald Trump’s Rabbi’
When my children were growing up – from elementary school through high school – my wife and I frequently took them to Los Angeles’s Museum of Tolerance. I’ve also taken friends to this wonderful institution, which I consider an essential stop for out-of-town visitors. Although its roots are based in educating people about the causes…
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Opinion John Kerry’s Leaned Over Backward to Praise Israel — and the Numbers Prove It
Israel’s prime minister has claimed that John Kerry’s recent speech, given in response to U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, was “unbalanced and anti-Israeli.” A quantitative and qualitative review of the the December 28 speech, however, shows the opposite. From the very beginning, Kerry was clearly making the case for Israel. During the speech, “Israel” received…
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Opinion Why Rabbi Marvin Hier Giving His Blessing to Trump’s Inauguration Is a Good Thing
Before last summer’s Republican National Convention, the widely esteemed Rabbi Haskel Lookstein was asked to deliver the invocation. He was reportedly honored and graciously accepted, but soon, petitions and protest led the rabbi, who served as Ivanka Trump’s sponsoring conversion rabbi, to rescind his acceptance. Despite the fact that the role has traditionally been apolitical,…
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Opinion Why Jews Must Fight for the Civil Rights of Muslims
(JTA) — As we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., American Jews should reflect anew upon the epic struggle he led to free African-Americans from the shackles of bigotry and take pride in the singular role played by the Jewish community in support of King and African-Americans. As we await the advent of…
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Opinion Why Jews Need To Stop Using the Word ‘Christian’ as a Slur
There is a widespread but little-mentioned problem in Judaism today: namely, the derisive dismissal of Reform Jews by the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox. This often takes the form of slurs and insults. One of the most noxious and oft-repeated of these is the assertion that Reform Jews are not really Jews, but Christians. As a Reform…
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Opinion J.D. Vance’s ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ has lessons for social conservatives in the age of Trump
How J.D. Vance's book explains Donald Trump voters
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Opinion What a Swastika Means to Reform Jews in Today’s America
One morning in early January, the students and faculty of Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion’s Cincinnati campus, the longtime seat of Reform Judaism in America, woke up to find themselves victims of anti-Semitism. A large, white swastika had been scrawled on the seminary’s red entrance sign. You couldn’t miss it. Though traumatic…
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Opinion Donald Trump May Actually Believe What He Says About Russian Hacking
You might have seen the newscast of Donald Trump talking briefly to reporters on New Year’s Eve as he entered a black-tie party at his Florida mansion. He was discussing computer hacking, intelligence gathering and nuclear weapons. If you haven’t been petrified up until now at the prospect of a Trump presidency, this would be…
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Opinion What This Rabbi Learned From a Decade of Visiting Jailed Jewish Radical Judith Clark
On the drive from Manhattan, I leave the hustle and bustle of the city to steer on the winding road of the Saw Mill Parkway and make my way to Bedford Hills. I pass small villages, bike paths and beautiful canopies of trees to exit and park in the visitor’s parking lot, surrounded by high…
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Opinion How Benjamin Netanyahu’s Dangerously Twisted Words Hide the Truth
Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued two public statements. When the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution criticizing settlements, Netanyahu attacked it for not condemning Syria. When Secretary of State John Kerry defended the Obama administration’s decision to let the resolution pass, Netanyahu attacked him for not sufficiently condemning the Palestinians. In both…
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקערין וויווי לאַקס באַשרײַבט געשיכטע פֿון לאָנדאָנער ייִדישער פּרעסעVIDEO: Historian Vivi Laks tells history of the London Yiddish Press
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