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
Why in the World Are Progressives Opposing a Referendum On Israeli Occupation?
The initiative for holding a referendum in Israel, “Decision at 50,” calls for a decision on the future of the territories occupied by Israel for nearly 50 years. This plan derives from the recognition that the current Israeli government has no interest in ending the occupation. In fact, each of the previous Israeli governments over…
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Opinion Here’s How Jews Can Get Out the Vote — and Why We Must
I happened to be in Australia on July 2 when that country went to the polls to elect a new national government — and I ended up getting a civics lesson in a different form of democracy. As we decry the disgracefully low turnout in American elections and wonder what we can do about it,…
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Opinion Yeshiva U.’s Likely New President Will Keep School on Track — Toward Financial Ruin
If you’re about to apply for college starting in the fall, will your school of choice still be around to confer a diploma in four years’ time? Students considering applying to Yeshiva University for admission next year may want to think long and hard about that question. Here are a few sample headlines about the…
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Opinion When Your Husband Gets Called a ‘Filthy Kike’ On Twitter
It was bracing to learn on Monday that my husband, Glenn Thrush, had been called a “filthy kike” on Twitter. He is the chief political correspondent for Politico, and his run-in with the “alt right” American fascist movement stemmed from a roundtable with academics, of all things. His editor, Susan Glasser, convened a half-dozen experts…
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Opinion Why You Shouldn’t Go To Synagogue On Rosh Hashanah This Year
As the summer ends, Americans get back to business, and for American Jews, there’s no bigger business than the High Holidays at your local synagogue. I have some unconventional advice for you this year: Don’t go. Instead of attending the kitschy mass performances that even your rabbi probably finds uninspiring, choose a different holiday from…
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Opinion Immigrant Fearmongering From Donald Trump to Benjamin Netanyahu
In this bewildering political season, the least fortunate people — and especially immigrants — have become targets of opportunity for right-wing politicians around the world. The immigrants are used as foils. They are used as scapegoats. They are used to distract from the failures of these politicians to provide for the needs and to answer…
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Opinion 3 Types of Shimon Peres Haters — and Why They’re Wrong
The Shimon Peres haters — and they are many — are coming out in full force already, preying on his would-be memory while his life hangs in the balance. Even as his family grows optimistic that he will recover following a massive stroke, these haters are trying to undermine the inevitable hagiography that looms and…
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Opinion Why Anti-Semitism in the British Left Should Worry American Jews, Too
According to Dave Rich in The New York Times, the left in Britain has a serious anti-Semitism problem. Indeed, he explains, under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, antipathy or profound insensitivity to Israel and Judaism has all but taken over the Labour Party. Why should American Jews care about parochial British politics two thousand miles…
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Opinion Why Benjamin Netanyahu’s Outrageous ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ Claim Is Actually Clever Political Ploy
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to raise the collective blood pressure of official Washington to dangerous levels on September 9, charging in an online video that evacuating Israeli West Bank settlers, as Palestinians demand, would amount to “ethnic cleansing.” What’s more, he said, “some otherwise enlightened countries even promote this outrage.” Obama administration officials…
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Opinion What To Do When a Rosh Hashanah Prayer Is Triggering For You: Walk Out.
On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed. So begins the poem “Unetaneh Tokef,” which is recited on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I have always struggled with this poem. The very literal translation speaks to an intervening God, one who is ready to stand in judgement and hand down…
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Opinion Did Ailing Hillary Clinton Forget Watergate? It’s the Cover-Up That Gets You.
If Hillary Clinton is inaugurated president next January, she’ll be the second-oldest person ever to take that initial oath. At age 69 years, 88 days, she’ll be topped only by Ronald Reagan, who was 261 days older — 69 years, 349 days — at his inauguration in 1981. Should Donald Trump win, he would be…
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Culture Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary on the manosphere takes a detour into antisemitism
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Opinion Antisemitism is exploding on the right but the Jewish establishment is focused on the left
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Culture A brilliant Jewish storyteller may be gone, but her characters are ‘still talking’
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Yiddish „גלאָזפּערל‟: כּישוף־לידער פֿון קאַטערינאַ קוזנעצאָוואַ‘Glass Beads’: Yiddish magic by Katerina Kuznetsova
אין איין מיסטיש ליד פֿון קוזנעצאָוואַס נײַ בוך, פּראַוועט אַ שדיכע — די וואַלד־מלכּה — איר חתונה מיטן זומער.
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