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
-
Letters
More Shortsightedness From Orthodox Groups on Betsy DeVos
Rabbi Nathan Diament’s response to my column about Betsy DeVos perfectly reflects the short-sightedness of the Orthodox Union’s approach to this issue. The column in question was roughly 1,200 words long. Only 64 of those words addressed Orthodox organizations. Yet from Rabbi Diament’s response, you’d think the whole piece was an attack on them. In…
-
Opinion Why Do I Suddenly Like Ben Shapiro, Even Though I Hate His Politics?
The other day I happened to catch an interview with a very conservative pundit, Ben Shapiro, formerly of Breitbart News. He resigned after a Breitbart reporter was aggressively grabbed at a Donald Trump rally and the Breitbart organization, instead of defending its reporter, attacked the reporter for creating an incident that supposedly never happened. The…
-
Opinion President Obama Shouldn’t Go It Alone on Middle East Peace
As his administration draws to a close, many have wondered whether the president will seek to lay down a permanent marker on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before President-Elect Donald Trump assumes control in January. In fact, two days ago in the The New York Times, former President Jimmy Carter urged Obama to recognize the state of…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
Letters Orthodox Organizations Have a Right to Support Betsy DeVos
Jay Michaelson, in his column dated Nov. 28th, slanders Orthodox Jewish organizations for their support of President Elect Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education — Betsy DeVos — because we dare to support policies promoting “school choice.” We at OU Advocacy have consistently supported funding for quality public schools; we just think fairness dictates that some…
-
Opinion Don’t Just Fear the ‘Alt-Right.’ Stop It.
The “alt-right” has become thinking America’s bogeyman. I’m not the only one who is scared. Scared of the swift way that this grab bag collection of white nationalists has morphed from a fringe movement largely confined to the internet to a group whose latest annual conference drew significant news coverage. Scared of its encroachment into…
-
Opinion Actually, Jews Should Be Happy To See Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education
Forward contributing editor Jay Michaelson is acutely exercised over President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos to serve as the nation’s next Secretary of Education. Writing in these pages, he echoes teachers’ unions by sounding the alarm that DeVos, a school choice advocate, aims to destroy American public schools. Michaelson also asserts that “the agenda…
-
Opinion Think You Can Escape the ‘Alt-Right’ by Running to Canada? They Beat You There.
On the night of Donald Trump’s election, Canada’s immigration website crashed from an overload of traffic. Data from Google Trends also suggests that searches for “move to Canada” spiked significantly during the night as Trump victories unfolded. On Twitter, Canadians shared an image of Bugs Bunny sawing the U.S. off the continent, and speculated about…
-
Opinion Keith Ellison Vows To Give Democrats Their Groove Back — Will Louis Farrakhan Haunt Him?
Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota is a politician in a hurry. A decade ago he became the first Muslim ever elected to Congress. Now he’s running for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. That would make him the first Muslim to win a position in America’s national political leadership. Ellison, 53, says he’d prefer…
-
Opinion 4 Reasons We Should Stop Calling People ‘Intermarried’
The term “intermarriage” is confusing, vague, archaic and, well, creepy. It’s time for Jewish communities to move away from using this language when writing or talking about families. As the child of interfaith parents, and as the parent of grown interfaith children, and as someone who works full-time on interfaith family issues, I can give…
-
Opinion On Giving Tuesday, Take a Stand For a Gutsy Jewish Publication
Dear Forward Reader: We’re no strangers to criticism. Our independent journalism is often provocative — as good journalism should be. And for 120 years, our readers have never been shy about telling us what they think. We can take the heat. In fact, we welcome it. Respectful, lively debate is a quintessentially Jewish tradition—one that…
-
Opinion Should We Call Them ‘Alt-Right’ — or ‘White Nationalists,’ ‘Neo-Nazis,’ Something Else Entirely?
By this point, we’ve been forced to acknowledge the existence of a certain group among Donald Trump supporters — a group that is arguably defined by white nationalism, bigotry, and all the worst undercurrents in American thought that helped bring Trump to power. That group, whether we like it or not (and, decidedly, this author does…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Holy Ground A Jewish farmer broke ground on a synagogue in an Illinois cornfield. His neighbors showed up to help.
- 2
Opinion I discovered anti-Zionism at the University of Michigan. I’m glad it lives on there
- 3
Culture An Israeli genocide scholar looks to Israel’s history to understand ‘what went wrong’
- 4
Opinion An alarming new battleground in campus fights over Israel
In Case You Missed It
-
News Hochul makes play for Orthodox voters with tuition relief and synagogue buffer zones
-
News Middlebury College Hillel votes to rebrand, distancing from parent on Israel
-
Yiddish „צײַטזאָנע“ — אַ ציקל לידער פֿון דזשייק שנײַדער‘Time Zone’ — poetry by Jake Schneider
דער מחבר איז אַן אַמעריקאַנער־געבוירענער ייִדיש־אַקטיוויסט, פּאָעט און איבערזעצער אין בערלין.
-
Antisemitism Decoded Abe Foxman built the Jewish establishment. He died troubled by what it had become