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
That Time Shimon Peres Needed a Speech Written — and I Needed a Nap
(JTA) — It was 9 o’clock on a weekday evening and I was lounging around my Brooklyn apartment in pajamas when the call came summoning me to a Midtown Manhattan hotel. Shimon Peres needed a speechwriter; I was a speechwriter at the time for Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. It was the fall of…
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Opinion The Shimon Peres I Knew Was Unparalleled in His Quest for Peace
Rarely in history has a man been so identified with the life of his nation for so many decades and at so many critical junctures as Shimon Peres was. Peres’s legacy encompasses vision and practice, policy and authorship, statesmanship and politics. I remember how, in 1993, once the Oslo Declaration of Principles was signed between…
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Opinion 7 Tips for Your Rosh Hashanah Sermon from an Ex Spirituality Ghostwriter
As the Jewish calendar tilts toward Rosh Hashanah, congregational rabbis hunker down with copious amounts of caffeine for sermon-writing cram sessions. In my work as a long-time editor for rabbis, writing teacher for clergy of many faiths, and former spirituality ghostwriter (yes, there is such a thing), I’ve edited countless sermons, and I have a…
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Opinion Why Have a Politically Neutral Rosh Hashanah Dinner When You Can Debate Israel?
The different cultures of the world each have their own way of welcoming in a new year. Some usher in their new year with colorful street parades, some with fireworks, some with solemn bells and some with a passionate kiss. As Jews, we traditionally bring in our new year sitting together around the family table….
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Opinion How It Felt To Watch the Presidential Debate as a Jewish Conservative
If there’s one overarching story to be told from 2016 it’s how the media complex failed to predict, recognize or accept the Donald Trump phenomenon — and how this colored the entire election. This is important, especially as that complex watches and comments on the debates between Trump and Hillary Clinton. In a normal election…
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Opinion Lies, Damned Lies and Last Night’s Debate Between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump
I wish that the truth did set us free, but unfortunately, I heard a continual string of untruths at last night’s presidential debate. And they were mostly coming from behind just one podium. Before the debate began, I wrote hoping that Lester Holt, the NBC journalist who moderated the first one-on-one between Hillary Clinton and…
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Opinion Hillary Clinton Is a Flawed Candidate — Just Like God
When Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination, New York Times Magazine writer Emily Bazelon described her as a member of the “Moses Generation” of the women’s movement, having been around from its beginning with a career clearly defined by its generational twists and turns. Clinton has faced her long record during the campaign and, at…
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Opinion How These Rap Artists Pissed Off Official Israel — With a Mahmoud Darwish Poem
Poetry has become a lightning rod in Israeli politics. In July, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman summoned an Army Radio broadcaster for “clarification” after the station ran a program discussing the work of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. And a few days ago, Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev walked out of the…
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Opinion This Rosh Hashanah, My Hindu Father Gets a Yahrzeit Plaque
It’s that time of year again, when the annual High Holidays packet arrives in the mail. I’ve never been one to pore over the contents, but seven months after my father’s passing, this time it feels different. It’s not so much the holiday’s reflections on “who shall live and who shall die” that resonate so…
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Opinion Was Benjamin Netanyahu’s Meeting With Donald Trump Another Case of Electoral Meddling?
The day before the American presidential debate, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in New York, working his famous charm on the two major candidates. The prime minister regards handling Israel’s international relations as one of his strong suits. And indeed, after meeting Donald Trump Sunday morning and Hillary Clinton that afternoon, he was able…
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Opinion 6 Things I Expect From the First Presidential Debate — and One I Don’t
I don’t envy NBC news anchor Lester Holt, moderator of the first presidential debate this evening, whose every word and gesture will be scrutinized by a polarized American public. I don’t envy the candidates, either, for the same reason, though they did sign up for this excruciating job interview. But as a journalist, a Jewish…
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Fast Forward Israelis lament their divides, and cling to them, as they mark a holiday commemorating the toll of disunity
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Opinion On Monday my son was sworn into the IDF. I spent that afternoon protesting the Israeli government.
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