Opinion

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  Whatever Your Politics, You Shouldn’t Misrepresent Jewish Law’s Position on Abortion

  To the Editor: Commenting on the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, Reform Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner is quoted in a June 27 JTA story reposted by the Forward as contending that “Jewish tradition teaches the importance of a woman’s ability to make her own healthcare decisions” and that Maimonides…

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  Opinion

  Rabbi Haskel Lookstein Would Have Schooled Donald Trump at the Republican Convention — If You’d Let Him

  Nechama Liss-Levinson wrote an impassioned piece in these pages last week, demanding of the rabbi at the Ramaz School (her daughter’s alma mater), “Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, How Can You Shill for Donald Trump at Republican Convention?” Liss-Levinson, a Manhattan psychologist, has presumably never attended a political convention, either Democratic or Republican. If she had, she…

  By Bethany Mandel Jul 17, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  10 Troubling Things About the GOP Platform (Unless You’re a Straight White Christian Male)

  Remember that thing where the Republicans lost the presidency in 2012 and Republican National Convention Chairman Reince Priebus was all about giving the GOP a makeover to appeal to the youth, minorities, non-Christians, women and more progressive-leaning voters? Yeah, that never happened. And the GOP’s recently released 2016 platform is the most conservative, anti-progressive thing…

  By Lana Adler Jul 17, 2016 | 4 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 A new humanitarian outrage is unfolding in the Middle East. It’s not in Gaza

  

• Nora Berman The left is turning on AOC over Israel — and imperiling its own agenda

  

• Dan Perry Actually, Trump made things between Israel and Iran way worse

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, How Can You Shill for Donald Trump at Republican Convention?

  I was spending my five free minutes on Facebook when I saw my younger daughter’s posting. “Seriously? This is embarrassing…” She was referring to the July 14 article in the Forward, “Donald Trump Taps Ivanka’s Rabbi Haskel Lookstein for GOP Convention.” Our daughter had attended Ramaz High School, also known as the Joseph H. Lookstein…

  By Nechama Liss-Levinson Jul 15, 2016 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  After Nice, We Should Fight Islamic State Terror With Ruthless Progressivism

  Will this season of death ever stop? Nice, Dhaka, Istanbul, Orlando, Brussels, San Bernadino, Paris – and those are just the mass murders in cities we know. Over 1200 people have died in ISIS-inspired attacks around the world, not counting those in Iraq and Syria. It is practically impossible to defend against an endless, global…

  By Jay Michaelson Jul 15, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Can You Spew Sexism and Homophobia and Still Be Rabbi for ‘Most Moral Army in the World’?

  Another sexism scandal involving a male authority figure erupted in Israel on Monday, when it emerged that the army’s choice of new spiritual leader had previously implied that it was permissible for IDF soldiers to rape non-Jewish women during wartime. Rabbi Col. Eyal Karim is on his second round of scrutiny for this suggestion, which…

  By Natasha Roth Jul 14, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Lasting Harm of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Notorious Attack on Donald Trump

  I’m glad that Ruth Bader Ginsburg apologized. I fear that won’t erase the lasting harm of her inappropriate comments about Donald Trump. As a brilliant, bold, trailblazing jurist, Bader Ginsburg is someone I’ve long admired, so it is difficult to criticize her for speaking her mind, as she has encouraged so many women to do…

  By Jane Eisner Jul 14, 2016 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  How Donald Trump’s Republican Party Veered to Right of Benjamin Netanyahu on Israel

  Several weeks ago, the Republican Jewish Coalition unleashed an online advertising campaign with three dramatic, 30-second ads asserting that radical, anti-Israel extremists had taken over the Democratic Party. One ad focused on Cornel West, the firebrand who called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal, another on the Arab-American activist James Zogby, and the…

  By Jane Eisner Jul 14, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Ask How Theresa May Will Relate to Britain’s Jews — Not Israel

  It’s official: Theresa May has been confirmed as Britain’s next prime minister in the wake of David Cameron’s departure. Already the think pieces are pouring in, offering opinions and predictions about the woman who will lead the U.K. into its post-Brexit reality. In the Jewish press, per tradition, these pieces are focusing largely on what…

  By Lana Adler Jul 13, 2016 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Benjamin Netanyahu Is Suddenly Looking Like a Diplomatic Superstar

  Israel’s chattering classes had a field day in early July savaging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his four-day, four-nation African tour. With an entourage filling four jumbo jets, a price tag some put at $7.3 million (the prime minister’s office said it was just $3.25 million), plus more pomp and circumstance than a Viennese operetta,…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 13, 2016 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  No, Bernie Sanders Did Not Sell Out by Endorsing Hillary Clinton — Just the Opposite

  Did Bernie Sanders sell out by endorsing Hillary Clinton? Some of his more ardent followers seem to think so. They’ve accused him of compromising his values, of going back on what he claimed to believe in, and of throwing his lot in with the enemy. But an ancient rabbinic distinction between different types of arguments…

  By Lana Adler Jul 12, 2016 | 4 min read