In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
Hoping To Stabilize His Cabinet, Benjamin Netanyahu Destabilizes Israeli Democracy
Benjamin Netanyahu was probably just aiming to broaden and stabilize his shaky coalition, with its precarious one-seat parliamentary majority, when he decided to bring in Avigdor Lieberman, the bombastic ultra-nationalist, as defense minister and de facto second-in-command. It’s often the case with Netanyahu, however, that what begins as a simple survival tactic quickly escalates into…
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Opinion Debbie Wasserman Schultz Is Feeling the Bern — Let That Be a Lesson to Democrats!
Top Democrats are considering removing Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Congresswoman from south Florida, from her post — much to the delight of Bernie Sanders supporters. Many see Wasserman Schultz as a figurehead of the party establishment that is nakedly stacking the deck in favor of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries….
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Opinion It’s Time Orthodox Jews Speak Out Against Shomrim Patrol
The Brooklyn Hasidim accused of beating a young, gay black man named Taj Patterson back in 2013 are reportedly about to get a plea deal so sweet, they won’t serve a single day in prison. Patterson, who was beaten so badly that he was left blind in one eye, and who had homophobic slurs hurled…
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Opinion If Bernie Sanders Has an Actual Plan for Israel and the Palestinians, He’d Better Say So Now
To this unpredictable, irony-filled presidential election campaign, add this: The first Jewish candidate to win state primaries and amass millions of votes is also the one trying to steer the Democratic Party platform away from its full-throated support of Israel. By appointing outspoken critics of the Israeli government as his representatives on the platform committee,…
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Opinion Actually, Avigdor Lieberman Is Just What Israel Needs Right Now
Peaceniks may be up in arms about the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as Israel’s next minister of defense, but the country’s enemies are worried — and rightly so. Yes, as the inevitable flurry of articles accompanying his appointment are sure to point out, Lieberman once said that Israel could bomb the Aswan dam in the…
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Opinion Why Do Jewish Leaders Keep Ignoring Ultra-Orthodox Education Crisis?
The New York State Legislature is currently considering two bills, one introduced by Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee in early May, the other by Sen. David Carlucci and Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski in January, to strengthen existing legislation requiring nonpublic schools to meet the state’s minimum education standards. But Jewish leaders and groups who are usually very vocal…
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Opinion The Outrageous Jewish Hypocrisy of Ivanka Trump — Not To Mention Donald and Melania
What is it about Ivanka Trump? If Donald’s daughter were the one running for president, there would probably be far fewer Republicans declaring “Never Trump” as we watch the election unfold like a slow-motion train wreck. She is, simply, everything her father is not. Soft-spoken, a thoughtful listener, a self-proclaimed feminist, naturally beautiful and gentle…
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Opinion Inside the Western Hemisphere’s Only Romaniote Synagogue — and Its Greek Jewish Festival
Most of the year, the stretch of Broome Street between Allen and Eldridge Streets, on the Lower East Side in New York City, is fairly quiet. The majestic Kehila Kedosha Janina overlooks Chinese restaurants and repair shops as cars and motorbikes speed by on Allen Street’s southbound branch. But this Sunday, the block was crowded…
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Opinion How Netanyahu Showed the Army Who’s Boss by Handing the Keys to the Far Right
There are many ways to describe the Israeli cabinet shakeup that brings arch-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman into the Netanyahu government as defense minister. It’s a broadening and firming of a shaky coalition. It’s a lurch to the right. It’s a settling of scores. Most consequentially, though, it might be called a military coup in reverse. That…
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Opinion First They Came for the Transgender People…
The hysteria over transgender bathrooms is reaching such a fever pitch that even Americans who aren’t transgender are getting hurt by it. A Connecticut woman alleged earlier this month that she was harassed by Wal-Mart shoppers because, with her boyish appearance, she was mistaken for a transgender person headed for the women’s bathroom. “You are…
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Letters How Bend the Arc Is Fighting Donald Trump
Many Jewish organizations have tried to find a way to fight back against the terrible rhetoric of Donald Trump, but Nathan Guttman’s story of May 20 lionizing the efforts of the Anti-Defamation League and other groups missed some of the most important work happening on this issue — and a crucial player: Bend the Arc. This…
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
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Culture She was my Hebrew school bully — and I finally learned what happened to her
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Opinion American Jews were played — now what?
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Culture The Melania Trump Opera House won’t change hearts and minds — not even the president’s
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Fast Forward Columbia suspends, expels and revokes diplomas of students involved in Butler Library takeover
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Fast Forward Youth wing of the Democratic Party passes amendment opposing Israel’s ‘ongoing genocide in Gaza’
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Fast Forward Top leaders resign from Friends of the IDF amid internal reckoning
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