Opinion

• Opinion

  How Britain’s Left-Wing Party Convinces Itself It’s Not Anti-Semitic

  (Haaretz) — A year ago, at the height of the general election in the United Kingdom, there was much focus on racism in British politics. The discussions concentrated almost exclusively on the anti-immigration United Kingdom Independence Party, whose leaders were accused of incitement against immigrants; some of its members, including party candidates, were found to…

  By Anshel Pfeffer

  5 min read
• 
  Opinion

  What’s Actually at Stake for Brits and Americans in the Anti-Semitism Furor

  Near the start of his April 29 article for eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s media publication The Intercept, Robert Mackey says that what is at stake in a current British political dispute is, “whether critics of Israel, who question its government’s policies or its right to exist as a Jewish state, are engaged in a form…

  By Dan Friedman May 1, 2016 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Will Malia Bouattia Force British Students To Be Court Jews, Like I Was?

  The National Union of Students is Britain’s largest membership organization, representing 7 million students. So when it recently elected Malia Bouattia as its new president, and rumors swirled around that she was an anti-Semite, Jewish students on British campuses reportedly felt isolated and uncomfortable. But is Bouattia really an anti-Semite? Isn’t she merely, as she…

  By Samuel Lebens Apr 29, 2016 | 5 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

  Don’t Buy the Junk Science That Says Yiddish Originated in Turkey

  When I first saw the short film from Sheffield University featuring Dr. Eran Elhaik claiming that Yiddish has its roots in Turkey, I thought it must be an elaborate ruse, a Sacha Baron Cohen-esque prank to poke fun at the sometimes inane world of academia. But I soon realized that it was, alas, all too…

  By Jordan Kutzik Apr 28, 2016 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  5 Ways To Know If Your Anti-Zionist Comment Is Anti-Semitic

  Last week I wrote about Malia Bouattia’s derogatory comments about her university Jewish society and Husam El-Coolaq calling Tzipi Livni smelly. Given Bouattia’s position as the new head of the National Union of Students in Britain and given El-Coolaq’s comment at a public event at Harvard where he is a law student, it seemed as…

  By Dan Friedman Apr 28, 2016 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Should He Stay or Should He Go? Neither — Bernie Sanders Has a Third Path

  Bernie Sanders stands at a historic crossroads in his presidential campaign. One path is a continued fight against Hillary Clinton until every last delegate is chosen. The other path is to quit the race and start rallying his troops behind the winner. Each is a legitimate option with its own pluses and minuses. You can…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 28, 2016 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  We’re Celebrating Passover. Where Is Hope for Peace in Israel, Freedom and Progress?

  Passover had a certain bittersweet cast to it this year. I don’t think I’m the only one who felt it. It’s always been a joyous time: a family reunion, a festive meal, a chance to catch up with loved ones, to sing together, swap stories and talk about big ideas. Someone at our Seder table…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 26, 2016 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Why Israel’s $2.9M Rainbow Plane Is a Joke — and You Don’t Have Be a BDS Fan To Say So

  I confess when I first saw the simulated image of an airplane bedecked in the colors of the rainbow flag, ostensibly on its way to Tel Aviv Pride, I thought it was some sort of joke. Yet it really was the Israeli government’s intent, as part of an 11 million shekel ($2.9 million) advertising blitz,…

  By Liam Hoare Apr 26, 2016 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Why Did Bernie Sanders Pick ‘Palestine’ as Poverty Benchmark?

  (JTA) — Bernie Sanders, campaigning this weekend in Baltimore ahead of Tuesday’s primary in Maryland, sounded familiar and poignant notes about American poverty, arguing that the United States, the world’s mightiest power, lags behind developing countries on a number of scales. One marker, though, was odd: Two neighborhoods in Baltimore, he said, have worse infant…

  By Ron Kampeas Apr 25, 2016 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  What the Other Bernie Teaches Us About the Budding Sanders Personality Cult

  In mid-February of 1983, a week before Chicago chose its Democratic nominee for mayor, People magazine published a bemused profile of a political curiosity named Bernard Epton. An insurance lawyer who had put in a dozen years as a state legislator, Epton was the Republican candidate for City Hall. In a city that overwhelmingly voted…

  By Samuel G. Freedman Apr 25, 2016 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Why Are Israelis Lashing Out at Reform Jews? Because We’ve Reached the Tipping Point!

  Malcolm Gladwell had it right: “There comes a time when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” Thomas Kuhn, a historian of science who wrote of similar tendencies in his classic “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” would have called this the moment of “paradigm change.” Whichever author’s construction…

  By Aaron Panken Apr 25, 2016 | 3 min read