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
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Opinion
Letter to the Editor: The Notion That HIAS ‘Profits’ from Resettling Refugees is Ludicrous
On January 31, the Forward published a letter from the leadership of another Jewish organization that directly challenged the position of Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) on the Refugee and Muslim Ban, signed by President Trump on January 25, 2017, which happened to be International Holocaust Remembrance Day. During the 1930s and 1940s, there were…
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Opinion Judge Gorsuch Will be Good on Religious Liberties — Which Will Be Good for the Jews
When it comes to issues of interest to the Jewish community, Judge Neil Gorsuch’s potential confirmation to the Supreme Court is likely to have significant impact on the landscape of religious liberty. This is an issue the Supreme Court has been making active decisions on over the past five years. In 2012, the Court addressed…
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Opinion Stand Up for Truth
Dear Forward Reader: ‘Oh God, not the Jews again.” That was Ann Coulter, answering a BBC journalist’s question about whether her anti-immigrant stance might have harmed newcomers a century ago. We say: Yes, the Jews again. Our history, our tradition, and our values are deeply relevant to today’s news. At the Forward, we’re not staying…
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Opinion How Could Modern Orthodox Judaism Produce Jared Kushner?
In our annual progression through the Torah, we are now deep into slavery in Egypt. And each year, around this time, as I read the first Torah portions in Exodus, the same thought occurs to me: Why is all this necessary? By the end of Jacob’s life, he’s back in the Land of Israel, the…
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Opinion Letter from Ukraine: Don’t Let Refugee History Repeat Itself
The abandoned 428-year-old synagogue in Sharhorod, Ukraine stands as a powerful reminder of why millions of Jews in the world now call themselves Americans. I traveled there last week from my home in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, to better understand where my family comes from. Six of my eight great-grandparents fled villages like Sharhorod – places…
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Opinion My Late Uncle’s Memories of Germany in the 1930s Haunt Me Today
Anti-Semitism had always been a part of German culture before Hitler came to power, my great uncle Ernie Lowenstein told me. But the difference was noticeable as soon as he became chancellor. You could tell right away, he recalled. I was visiting Ernie in a retirement facility in Evansville, Indiana in the summer of 1992….
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Opinion Three Practical Ways to Preserve Our Freedoms in the Trump Era
With the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States on November 8, 2016, our country experienced a political earthquake. It put all Americans on notice that the four years of the Trump presidency will present a challenge to maintain the foundations of our country: free-speech, free press, freedom of religion, peaceful…
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Opinion Kippahed While Black: The Troubling Resurgence of ‘Shvartze’ and ‘Kushi’
In the past few years, the words “kushi” and “shvartze” have enjoyed, let’s say, an unfortunate comeback. A few years ago, a prominent rabbinic scholar came under fire for suggesting that Jews should not commit crimes such as molestation — not necessarily because they were wrong, but because they would be put in jail with…
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Letters Letter to the Editor: Preventing Radical Islamists From Murdering Americans Is a Moral Act
The left’s confusion about what constitutes “morality” compels us to respond to Forward editor Jane Eisner’s criticism of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) because ZOA supports President Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States.” Most Americans, according to a recent Rasmussen poll, agree with ZOA: Americans…
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Opinion The Refugee Ban Masks Steve Bannon’s Power Grab
Last Friday night, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump hosted their first Shabbat meal in their new home in Washington DC. Among the invitees saying kiddish were influential members of the new Trump administration. The next day, one of the attendees, Hope Hicks, Trump’s Director of Strategic Communications, spent her Saturday publicly defending and applauding the…
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Opinion How Jewish Frat Boys Rescued Refugees in the 1930s, and Why It Matters Today
In the Fall of 1936, Sam Sherman, an officer of the historically Jewish Phi Epsilon Pi fraternity (PhiEp) circulated a call to his fellow Greeks asking for funds to help Central European Jewish student refugees. The plea intended to assist young men who had been prohibited from completing their university studies because of Hitler’s rise…
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Holy Ground A Jewish farmer broke ground on a synagogue in an Illinois cornfield. His neighbors showed up to help.
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Opinion I discovered anti-Zionism at the University of Michigan. I’m glad it lives on there
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Culture An Israeli genocide scholar looks to Israel’s history to understand ‘what went wrong’
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Opinion An alarming new battleground in campus fights over Israel
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Fast Forward DOGE’s cuts to Jewish humanities grants were unconstitutional, judge rules
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Fast Forward As anti-LGBTQ laws spread, these two Jewish nonprofits are funding moves to safer states