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
Donald Trump Hates Losers. Judaism Can’t Get Enough of Them.
“Loser.” Donald Trump has called many people this word, and synonyms for it, over the course of his many careers. His adolescent name-calling has degraded our political discourse, and even if he fails at his new chosen vocation (as seems increasingly likely), the damage will be hard to reverse. Ironically, Trump himself is the candidate…
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Opinion How Jewish Persecution Complex Warped Our Reaction to the Rio Olympics
The Israeli national team at the Rio Olympics made headlines twice for reasons related not to their athletic accomplishments, but rather to politics. The first incident occurred when the Lebanese team prevented the Israeli athletes from boarding the same bus as them for transportation to the opening ceremonies. The second occurred when Egypt’s Islam El…
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Opinion Why I Want To Speak Out for Criminal Justice Reform as a Jew
Arraignments court was not quite as I imagined. The ceilings were low, not towering and imperious, and spectators sat in scratched wooden pews behind a swinging-door gate. Defendants were brought into the room in handcuffs, entering through a side door that revealed a room full of people awaiting arraignment. The defendants and most of the…
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Opinion Believe It or Not, the Rio Olympics Were Great for the Jews
Over the past few decades, international organizations have done their utmost to exclude Israel from the family of nations. One such worldwide association, the Olympics, ostensibly dedicated to fair play, comradeship and the promotion of world peace, has an even longer anti-Semitic pedigree. Back in 1936, it awarded prime time exposure to the Nazi regime…
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Opinion Is Israel Trying To Turn American Jews Into Orthodox Right-Wingers?
The Israeli government has rolled out the first stage of its long-awaited Israel-Diaspora outreach initiative, which promised to inject hundreds of millions of dollars into a broad range of innovative Jewish identity programs. One might say that the program unveiled in an August 12 announcement, a series of grants for outreach programming on college campuses…
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Opinion Monica Lewinsky and the Trope of the Jewish Temptress in the Trump Age
While we as a nation prepare for the presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — the first one is slated to take place at Hofstra University on September 26 — much is being written about each candidate’s debate prep. Trump is battening down the hatches by taking advice from former Fox News chairman and many-time…
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Opinion What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Crown Heights
I was 7 years old when I first heard of Crown Heights. At the time, growing up in Los Angeles, my entire world felt Jewish. There were Hollywood Jews who worked in the industry like my parents, Russian Jews down the block from our West Hollywood home and Hasidic Jews on Fairfax. Sure, there were…
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Opinion Donald Trump Hiring Breitbart Exec Is Slap in Face for Targeted Jews Like Me
Donald Trump hires the best people. At least, that’s the prayer his supporters — who hope his Supreme Court picks will save the Court from being dominated by liberals for a generation — are holding onto. In an effort to shake up his campaign after weeks of plummeting polls, Trump did what all politicians in the same…
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Opinion For Israel, It’s No Jew Left Behind — Unless You’re Ethiopian
Civil unrest is roiling Ethiopia. Hundreds of protesters have been killed in recent months by a government crackdown that human rights groups say has been ruthless. The United Nations is demanding that its observers be allowed in the country, but Ethiopia’s rulers have refused. And 9,000 men, women and children who say they are Jews…
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Books 9 Books Bret Stephens Should Read Before Saying Arabs Have a ‘Stunted Literary Culture’
Writing this week in The Wall Street Journal, columnist Bret Stephens had some strange things to say about Arab-majority countries. From an Egyptian’s refusal to shake hands with an Israeli after their Olympics judo match, the one-time editor of The Jerusalem Post extrapolates all of recent politics and history across 22 countries. He makes reference…
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Opinion Jews Who Hurt Gay Black Man Only Want To Do Community Service With Other Jews
Pinchas Braver and Abraham Winkler, two Hasidic men involved in the 2013 unlawful imprisonment and vicious beating of Taj Patterson, a then-22-year-old gay black man, are now attempting to shirk their sentence. Braver and Winkler, who pled guilty to unlawful imprisonment in a plea bargain, were sentenced to only three years probation, a $1400 restitution…
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