Opinion

• Opinion

  My Name Is Loolwa Khazzoom and I Won’t Change That To Come Off Less Middle Eastern

  I just received a text from my guitarist, urging me to change our band name from “Iraqis in Pajamas” to something else — anything else, as long as it has no Middle Eastern connotation. A young Muslim woman at the local university was just attacked and hit in the head, he informed me, and the…

  By Loolwa Khazzoom

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  A Hanukkah Freedom Party With Human Rights Violators

  On December 14th‪, the Embassy of Azerbaijan will co-host a Hanukkah party at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, with the Conference of President of Major American Jewish Organizations. This celebration of “religious freedom and diversity” is another transparent attempt by Azerbaijan to portray itself as a stable, Western-facing democracy, an image designed to…

  By Jared Genser Dec 11, 2016 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Sorry, Jews. Steve Bannon Is Not an Anti-Semite, and This Story Is Not About Us.

  We’ve got Steve Bannon wrong. Among American Jewish progressives, the consensus is that Bannon, Donald Trump’s “strategic adviser,” is anti-Semitic. The website he managed, Breitbart.com, called itself “the platform for the alt-right,” and the “alt-right” contains within it some extreme anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and so forth. And besides, according to court documents, Bannon didn’t want his…

  By Jay Michaelson Dec 11, 2016 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz Class assignment: Get to know your murdered Jewish neighbors

  

• Rob Eshman Liberal Zionists are under attack. A new book proves their work has never been more important

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s most dangerous war is with itself

  

• Emily Tamkin American Jews have a Hasan Piker problem. Solving it is going to hurt

  

• Jay Michaelson Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it. 

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Crisis: Can an All-GOP Washington Investigate Russia Ties to Trump? What Would Elijah The Prophet Do?

  Unless the CIA and the rest of America’s intelligence community are dreadfully wrong or The Washington Post is lying, neither of which seems remotely likely, the United States is facing a constitutional crisis unlike any we’ve seen before. And the worst of it is that it might well be swept under the rug, given the…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 10, 2016 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Like Houdini, Netanyahu Is a Great Escape Artist — Just Look at His Contortions On Settlements

  October 31 marked 90 years since the death of Harry Houdini, the rabbi’s son who became the world’s most famous magician. Houdini dazzled audiences around the globe by conjuring up unforgettable performance art out of the most essential practice in Jewish tradition: escaping danger. It’s appropriate, then, that in the month since Houdini’s yahrzeit we’ve…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 9, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The ‘Anti-Semitism Awareness Act’ Is the Opposite of What Jews and Muslims Need Now

  I was pleased to see Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, gallantly tweet that he would “register as a Muslim” in the event that such a registry were created. But despite this initial gesture, actions that the organization has since taken are less encouraging. After initially defending Rep. Keith Ellison from charges of anti-Semitism,…

  By Rachel Roberts Dec 8, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Reading Anne Frank in South Africa: Apartheid’s Jewish Lesson for Trump’s America

  The mainstreaming of anti-Semitism during the Donald Trump election campaign has shocked many American Jews, and it is obviously cause for concern. But it can’t be separated from white nationalists’ broader onslaught against Muslims, Latinos and people of color in general. In fact, if we Jews want to act on the basis of our shared…

  By Tony Karon Dec 8, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  This Transgender Rabbi Is Standing Up to Ben Shapiro’s Hateful Rhetoric

  Right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro, speaking at Yeshiva University on Monday night, declared that “transgender people are unfortunately suffering from a significant mental illness” and that “Torah Judaism does not support social justice.” In the same breath, he delivered his views on how to be a mensch. As a transgender rabbi, a Jewish educator and an…

  By Becky Silverstein Dec 7, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  A Friend’s Poignant Goodbye to a Jewish Victim of the Oakland Warehouse Fire

  It’s been five days since a fire tore through an Oakland warehouse party, taking the lives of 36 people. One of those people was my friend, Jon Bernbaum, who was video dee-jaying that night. This tragedy is horrifying. Not only because of the fire and the lives lost, but because a lot of those people…

  By Samantha Saltzman Dec 7, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  For Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, Whiteness Was a Fragile Identity Long Before Trump

  “I have lived for 26 years under the illusion that I am unconditionally white…. Recently I have started looking at my face and going, ‘Oh man, do I look too Jewish?’” Sydney Brownstone, the reporter who voiced this question in a recent Blabbermouth podcast, is not alone in wondering this. Many Ashkenazi Jews who have…

  By Sigal Samuel Dec 7, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The ‘Real’ Benjamin Netanyahu Shows Brusque Side — and Steps on His Own Message

  Jerusalem —  Those who know Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu far better than I do said that the real Bibi was on display as he addressed the International Jewish Media Summit in Jerusalem Tuesday night. In that case, Netanyahu — the only Israeli elected prime minister three times in a row, the man who says…

  By Jane Eisner Dec 6, 2016 | 4 min read