Opinion

• Opinion

  Why Jews Need the European Union — Warts and All

  The European Union is going through some tough times. Next month, Great Britain, which from the beginning has had one foot out of the European project by not signing on to the European currency or the Schengen Agreement (a treaty that abolished many of the E.U.’s internal borders), will vote on whether to divest from…

  By Ari Paul

  3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Engaging Jewish Teenagers Isn’t Hopeless — If We Do It Right

  (JTA) — Welcoming teens into Jewish life is both one of the most important and seemingly challenging endeavors of the Jewish community. The rapid decline in teen engagement in Jewish life post-b’nai mitzvah is well-documented and depressing. It’s also an entirely reversible trend, but only if the Jewish community approaches teen engagement in a new way…

  By David Bryfman May 8, 2016 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Was This Top Israeli General Right To Denounce Jewish Extremism on Holocaust Day?

  What on earth could have possessed the second-in-command of Israel’s armed forces to kick off Yom Hashoah, the national Holocaust remembrance day, with a May 4 speech likening Israel today to Germany on the eve of World War II? There are two possible answers. As it happens, one is correct and the other isn’t. On…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 8, 2016 | 6 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 Americans keep getting killed in the West Bank. Here’s how the US could fight that awful trend

  

• Nora Berman First Camp Auschwitz, now Alligator Alcatraz — why the right is obsessed with commodifying brutality

  

• Dan Perry What exactly is going on between Israel and Syria — and is the prospect of peace dead?

  

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

  

The Latest

• 
  Opinion

  How To Listen to Beyonce When You’re a White American Jew

  Some of the most compelling popular art of the past year has come not only from an African-American perspective, but also from a relatively confrontational one — in the best sense. I’m thinking here of Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly,” Ta-Nehisi Coates’s masterful “Between the World and Me,” Beyonce’s “Formation” video, and now the…

  By Jay Michaelson May 8, 2016 | 5 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Wesleyan Made Use of Its Open Hillel Status for the First Time — and It Was Good for the Jews

  When I arrived at Wesleyan last fall, I thought I would be involved in Israel politics despite the campus political climate. Instead, I got involved because of it. Wesleyan’s reputation as a strongly pro-Palestine campus had preceded it, and I admit that I had been anxious about coming in a Zionist, even a progressive one….

  By Anna Fox May 8, 2016 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  If Germany Loses Patience With Israel, Will European Jews Take the Heat?

  Israel could be headed for choppy waters in its relations with Germany, its most important ally in Europe. According to an April 29 report in Der Spiegel, Germany’s most prestigious and authoritative newsweekly, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration is losing patience with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, and is beginning to reconsider its long-standing…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 6, 2016 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Jews of Color Get Personal and Political at First-Ever National Gathering

  If you want to get black Jews, Mizrahi Jews and a Palestinian-American Muslim to burst into tears at the same time, invite Yavilah McCoy to talk about hair. Speaking at the opening plenary of the Jews of Color National Convening, which took place May 1–3 in Manhattan, McCoy gestured at the woman beside her, a…

  By Sigal Samuel May 4, 2016 | 8 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Will New Jewish Effort Force New York To Change Sex Abuse Laws at Last?

  Sara Kabakov had never done this before. Never driven three hours from her home in Ithaca, N.Y., to the state capitol in Albany nearly 200 miles away, never tried to enter the mosh pit of lobbying lawmakers, never thought of herself as a political activist. But there she was yesterday at the capitol, seeking an…

  By Jane Eisner May 4, 2016 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Sanders Calls It ‘Palestine,’ Trump Won’t Call It ‘West Bank’ — and Why These Words Matter

  To Bernie Sanders, the 2,000-square mile swath of disputed territory east of the Green Line demarcating the internationally recognized border of Israel is known as “Palestine.” Hillary Clinton has called it the “West Bank,” the mainstream term used by the White House and most news organizations, including this one. Ted Cruz refers to it as…

  By Jane Eisner May 2, 2016 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  New Comedy ‘Activist’ Tackles Israel Divestment on Campus — But Is It Funny?

  Campus activists who work on Israel-Palestine — particularly Jewish ones — are both busy and tense. On one hand, Israel’s deepening occupation and the Israeli government’s current obsession with combatting BDS are natural fuel for the activist fire. On the other, the attempts by the Jewish community to marginalize those who don’t toe the party…

  By Mira Sucharov May 2, 2016 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  You Hate the Jewish Establishment — But Do You Know What It Is?

  I recently found myself in a small conference room with a number of key figures of the “American Jewish establishment.” Around the table was the chief executive of one of the major Jewish defense organizations, several high-level Federation representatives, and leaders of mainstream Israel advocacy organizations. We were not conducting a secretive strategy meeting on…

  By David Bernstein May 2, 2016 | 3 min read