In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
-
Opinion
Why Anti-Semitic Attacks Are Good For Donald Trump
More than 200 headstones overturned. Eighty-nine bomb threats and counting. We are living through a paroxysm of anti-Semitic violence not seen in the United States in two generations. But there are at least three crucial questions to which we do not know the answer. First, and most narrowly, we don’t yet know who is committing…
-
Opinion Trump Says You Can’t Love America And Care About The World. Jews Know Better.
President Trump delivered an unexpectedly presidential speech when he addressed a joint session of Congress for the first time last night, reciting his campaign promises in a kinder, gentler tone, gesturing at compromise and offering a gauzier vision of America than we have ever heard from him before. But laced through the hour-long speech was…
-
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…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel
- 2
Film & TV In ‘Disclosure Day,’ Steven Spielberg finds himself at odds with Jewish thought about aliens
- 3
Opinion Cultural boycotts of Israel just reached peak absurdity
- 4
News Abdul El-Sayed is courting Jewish voters — without moderating his views on Israel
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Mamdani calls AIPAC ‘monsters’ in rally ahead of NY primaries
-
Fast Forward Jewish groups push back against Trump’s Iran deal — but more quietly so far than in 2015
-
News Who is Gadi Eisenkot, the Israeli politician who could dethrone Netanyahu?
-
Culture My father was my hero and, when he was dying, I wrote this song for him