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
Trump’s Effort Against Anti-Semitism Is No Longer ‘Too Little, Too Late’
After months of negative press and justifiable criticism for a campaign plagued by anti-Semitic dog whistles, both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are finally making amends. Last week, Trump forcefully responded to the shocking increase in anti-Semitic incidents, condemning such attacks and threats as “horrible” and “painful.” Meanwhile, Pence and his wife, Karen…
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Opinion Be Careful How You Offer Sanctuary
The house that stood on the land where my childhood synagogue would later stand was once a stop for slaves heading to freedom on the Underground Railroad. That synagogue, where I went regularly to worship and study in my formative years, once served as a secret storage point for arms bound for Israel during its…
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Opinion Trump Is Elephant In Every Room As Shellshocked Jews Seek Path Forward
On Monday afternoon, February 27, Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered what appeared to be his first-ever keynote address to a national Jewish organization. His host, unsurprisingly, was J Street, the self-described pro-Israel, pro-peace advocacy organization. The liberal Jewish group was holding its once-a-year national conference in Washington, D.C. The liberal Jewish senator couldn’t have asked for…
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Opinion When Jews Were Illegal — And Turned To Others For Sanctuary
MILWAUKEE (JTA) — I was privileged recently to participate as the sole Jewish voice at a news conference with Latino leaders, community activists and faith groups at which we spoke loudly and clearly in support of compassionate immigration policies. I told the people gathered about a piece of Jewish history I had only recently discovered…
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Opinion The Surprising Thing Bibi Whispers in Trump’s Ear
President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel recently held their first face-to-face meeting in Washington. After years of combative relations between Israel and the Obama administration, the two leaders demonstrated the casual repartee of old friends. “Bibi and I have known each other a long time,” Trump said. “A smart man, a…
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Opinion St. Louis Cemetery Push Shows How Jews Can Build Alliances With Muslims
Thousands of Muslims recently donated more than $120,000 to help support the cleanup and restoration of hundreds of desecrated graves at the Chessed Shel Emeth cemetery in St. Louis. This grassroots effort came soon after an outpouring of American Jewish support for Muslims in the aftermath of President Trump’s recently issued Executive Order directing Federal…
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Opinion How Did Jewish Cemeteries Become Battlegrounds For Bigots — Again?
Desecrating a cemetery is a particularly heinous act. This is why the Nazis deliberately dismantled Jewish cemeteries in Germany, Poland and across the swath of Europe they once controlled, using the gravestones as paved stones, forcefully telegraphing the message: We don’t honor these dead. We walk all over them. This is why states and municipalities…
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Opinion How Purim Is A Call To Leadership
([JTA](http://www.jta.org ” “JTA”)) — [(JTA](JTA](http://jta.org “(JTA”)) — Purim is a dark story marked by a crazy party. I’m still unsure why a close brush with extermination became, in the Middle Ages, an opportunity for costumes and farce, but there you have it. It’s the fifth century BCE, about a hundred years after the First…
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Opinion Mister President, Journalists Are Our Allies, Not Our Enemies
Long before I thought of entering the rabbinate, I dreamed of becoming a journalist. I served as a reporter on my high school newspaper, and when I was in 11th grade, the local school board threatened to close our high school. I remember my heart pounding when I had to pick up the phone to…
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Opinion How Ivanka Trump Revamped The Role Of The ‘Daddy’s Girl’
While researching my book, “Our Fathers, Ourselves,” I spent a year interviewing nearly 100 women, ages 20 through 40, most of them successful in their fields, in a quest to explore the father-daughter bond and the evolving gender roles between women and their dads. These were the sort of women who were early to excel…
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Opinion Why Arab Peace Moves Could Be Gamechanger For Peace — Trump Or No
The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia said on Sunday, February 19, that 2017 “will be a year” in which “progress can be made in the Arab-Israeli conflict.” “If there is a will to do so, we know what a settlement looks like,” said the minister, Adel Al-Jubeir. “We just need the political will to do…
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Music In Elie Wiesel’s latter years, he and I discussed the effects of the Holocaust. Those conversations are now an opera.
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Fast Forward Trump’s antisemitism envoy says US will bar World Cup attendees tied to antisemitism abroad
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