Opinion

• Opinion

  Breaking the Silence Is Wrong — But Columbia Hillel Was Right To Play Host Anyway

  After word got out this past week that J Street U would be hosting the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence at the Columbia/Barnard Hillel, the eyes of the Jewish world were drawn to our campus. Debates erupted. Many pro-Israel activists called on us to cancel the event. Hillel was accused of abandoning its pro-Israel principles….

  By Daniella J. Greenbaum and Jonathan Deluty

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Don’t We Wail Over the Arab Homes Destroyed for Our Kotel?

  Over the past few months I have repeatedly been asked my opinion about the compromise agreement — now itself — to create an egalitarian prayer space adjacent to the Western Wall. As I watched women and men with tallitot and tefillin reading from the Torah and singing in celebration, I was grateful that after many years…

  By Tova Hartman Apr 6, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  I Wrote the IDF Code of Ethics. Here’s My Take on the Hebron Shooting.

  Israeli public debate is focused these days on a seemingly simple incident: In Hebron, two Palestinian terrorists attacked a team of Israel Defense Forces soldiers, managing to stab one of them before they themselves were shot. One terrorist was killed and the other injured. The latter was lying on the road when a soldier arrived,…

  By Asa Kasher Apr 6, 2016 | 4 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

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  Opinion

  Ghost of Golda Meir Looms Large Over Wisconsin Primary — and Joe McCarthy’s Too

  A victory in Tuesday’s Wisconsin primaries is crucial for candidate Bernie Sanders politically, but it would also be poetic justice, historically, for the veteran Jewish socialist. Wisconsin has an illustrious socialist past, including the election of three mayors in Milwaukee as well as the first socialist member of Congress, Victor Berger, an Austrian born Jew….

  By Chemi Shalev (Haaretz) Apr 5, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Conservative Rabbis Must Be Allowed To Preside Over Interfaith Weddings

  (JTA) — The Conservative movement’s leadership must drop its ban on Conservative rabbis officiating at interfaith weddings — before it’s too late. The Rabbinical Assembly’s unequivocal rule is that a Conservative rabbi may not officiate at an intermarriage. But after 42 years as an active rabbi, during which I abided by that prohibition, I now…

  By Seymour Rosenbloom Apr 5, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Does Donald Trump Respect Women More Than Pro-Lifers Do?

  Donald Trump’s candidacy has revealed many things, but I don’t think anyone expected it to cast a harsh light on the misogyny of the pro-life movement. Interestingly, the pro-lifers’ conundrum has a Jewish precedent. The latest controversy (of how many? I’ve lost count) started at the March 30 Republican Town Hall, in which Trump, clearly…

  By Jay Michaelson Apr 5, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How Bernie Sanders Reveals Our Own Jewish Identity Anxiety

  This election cycle, a curious side-story has developed around the question of Bernie Sanders’s Jewish identity. What of Jew is he? What’s he like at Kiddush? What’d he do at that kibbutz? Why doesn’t he talk more about being Jewish? Why doesn’t he talk more about Yiddish socialism? Should we force him to be more…

  By Evan Goldstein Apr 4, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How an Anti-Zionist’s Embrace of Bernie Was a Gift to Bibi — and Hillary

  In a certain sense, the cover story of this week’s Village Voice, titled “The Heretic” (subheading: “In a Zionist Age, the Bern Kicks It Old Shul”), represents a milestone victory for Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s also, to a lesser degree, a gift to Hillary Clinton. For the Israeli leader, the article represents a wholehearted embrace, in…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 4, 2016 | 8 min read
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  Opinion

  How Long Can Distinction Between Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism Survive?

  In adopting a statement distinguishing anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism, the Regents of the University of California have threaded a tiny needle with minute care. After intense public debate and lobbying from all sides, the Regents declared on March 24 that anti-Semitism had “no place” on its many campuses, but declined to issue a broad condemnation of…

  By Jane Eisner Apr 4, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How Breaking the Silence Inspires My Pro-Israel Advocacy

  Breaking the Silence, the organization of former Israeli soldiers who speak about their experiences serving in the occupied Palestinian Territories, has recently come under heavy attack from right-wing forces in Israel’s government and society. As a pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian activist and student, I have found it deeply frustrating to see brave soldiers denigrated and persecuted as…

  By Justin Vogel Apr 3, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Should Jewish Peoplehood Mean Anything in Our Post-Ethnic Moment?

  For more than 75 years, the idea of Jewish peoplehood has served to unify Jews. Essentially, it means that Jews share binding ties that cut across practice and national boundaries. It points to a shared history and, we presume and hope, a shared and connected future. The decades have shown that the “peoplehood” term has…

  By Deborah Waxman Apr 3, 2016 | 4 min read