Opinion

• Opinion

  The Skittles Uproar Is a Silly Diversion From What Donald Trump Jr. Seriously Believes

  Donald Trump’s family is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you’re going to get, but — with apologies to Forrest Gump — you could be in for an unpleasant surprise. The outside looks awesome, but what you find below the surface might make you sick. Especially if, like me, you’re allergic to…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  5 Reasons You Should Stop Kvetching and Go To Synagogue On Rosh Hashanah

  Jay Michaelson published an opinion piece in these pages last week, titled “Why You Shouldn’t Go To Synagogue on Rosh Hashanah This Year.” It was kvetching — the good old-fashioned kind, with the good old-fashioned upshot of accomplishing nothing other than making a bunch of people (many of them congregational rabbis) really, really angry. When…

  By Jordie Gerson Sep 21, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How Obama’s Aid Package to Netanyahu Functions as a Rorschach Test for Jews

  You can consider the unprecedented 10-year, $38 billion military aid package that the United States just signed with Israel by the numbers. It’s $3.8 billion a year. That’s $73,076,924 a week. Roughly $10,410,959 a day. Or you can consider it as a Rorschach test for the waning days of the tempestuous relationship between President Obama…

  By Jane Eisner Sep 21, 2016 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• Dan Perry Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  As a Republican Jew, Am I Committing Political Suicide by Opposing Donald Trump?

  Another day, another anti-Semitic trope in defense of Donald Trump. The latest defense is surprising, though, coming as it does from Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post. Glick writes that Republican Jews are committing “collective political suicide” by not supporting Trump — and that they’re taking the Republican Party, if not the entirety of American…

  By Karol Markowicz Sep 20, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Was New York Bombing a Dry Run for United Nations Attack?

  On the surface, the quick arrest of a suspect in the weekend bomb wave in New York and New Jersey might look like it’s brought some closure to the frightening series of events. In fact, though, the arrest raises as many questions as it settles. The same is true of the tactics of law enforcement…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 20, 2016 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Why We Protested a Palestinian Course at Berkeley

  It never should have come to this. A credit-bearing, student-taught course at UC Berkeley entitled “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis,” which was already underway, was suspended on September 13 by the Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences because “the policies and procedures governing the review and approval of proposed courses…were not complied with…

  By Tammi Rossman-Benjamin Sep 19, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Berkeley’s Choice To Nix Palestinian Course Disgusts Me as a Jewish Alum

  The Obama Administration just approved a $38 billion foreign aid package to the Israeli government. This is the largest aid package to Israel in history, ensuring Israel can maintain the largest and strongest military in the region. And yet, some of Israel’s advocates in Northern California say they’ve been battling for Israel’s very existence. The…

  By Simone Zimmerman Sep 18, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Money Smarts Isn’t the Most Important Quality for Yeshiva U.’s Next President

  The Jewish community has been abuzz this past week with news that Yeshiva University’s search committee selected Rabbi Ari Berman as its top choice to become Y.U.’s next president. As the committee’s press release noted, Berman has the Modern Orthodox and Y.U. pedigree you would expect of the university’s next leader; he was rabbi of…

  By Michael A. Helfand Sep 18, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Conclusions We Jump to After the New York Explosion

  Maybe it was nothing. Maybe we’re over-anxious now, like the travelers who fled JFK when it was all a false alarm. Probably not, but maybe. Maybe it was pranksters, or low-level wannabes. The devices were crude, the locations almost random. Whoever did this, maybe they read about terrorism and wanted to take part themselves. Luckily…

  By Jay Michaelson Sep 18, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why in the World Are Progressives Opposing a Referendum On Israeli Occupation?

  The initiative for holding a referendum in Israel, “Decision at 50,” calls for a decision on the future of the territories occupied by Israel for nearly 50 years. This plan derives from the recognition that the current Israeli government has no interest in ending the occupation. In fact, each of the previous Israeli governments over…

  By Orni Petruschka Sep 18, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Here’s How Jews Can Get Out the Vote — and Why We Must

  I happened to be in Australia on July 2 when that country went to the polls to elect a new national government — and I ended up getting a civics lesson in a different form of democracy. As we decry the disgracefully low turnout in American elections and wonder what we can do about it,…

  By Jane Eisner Sep 18, 2016 | 4 min read