Opinion

• 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…

  By Deborah Greene

  3 min read
• 
  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…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 12, 2016 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Will Hillary Clinton Health Scare Shake Up Race for the White House — and How?

  As a New York Senator, Hillary Clinton fought like a lion a decade and a half ago on behalf of thousands of first responders who were poisoned by the toxic cloud that hovered over the ruins of the Twin Towers following the terrorist attacks of September 11. She was damaged when the anniversary of that…

  By Chemi Shalev (Haaretz) Sep 12, 2016 | 5 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Trump is backed into a corner on Iran. Get ready for him to start blaming Jews

  

• Dan Perry Marking Israel’s most joyous day with anguish over the country’s future

  

• Emily Tamkin Hungary is poised to topple an authoritarian leader. American Jews have something to learn

  

• Jay Michaelson Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it. 

  

The Latest

• 
  Opinion

  Israel’s Shabbat Wars Are Heating Up — No Thanks to the Politicians!

  Cultural Zionist philosopher Ahad Ha’am famously wrote, “More than the Jews have kept the Shabbat, the Shabbat has kept the Jews.” But Ahad Ha’am didn’t live in Israel in the 21st century, where it is more relevant to paraphrase him by writing, “More than the politicians have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the politicians.” In…

  By Eetta Prince-Gibson Sep 11, 2016 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  We’re Jewish Student Activists and We Don’t Need To Be Protected From BDS

  Writing in the Forward, Seffi Kogen suggests that BDS pushes Jewish students out of social justice work on campuses across the country — because, when faced with the choice between supporting activism and supporting Israel, Jews have to choose Israel. But the problem facing Jewish student activists isn’t BDS or intersectionality: it’s the occupation, and…

  By Julia Berkman-Hill and Joshua Leifer Sep 11, 2016 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Finding My Own Truth As Poland Rewrites Holocaust History

  In August, Poland’s Cabinet approved a bill that would criminalize using the phrase “Polish death camp” or “Polish concentration camp,” with punishments ranging from fines to imprisonment. It’s one of several recent government reforms that critics have called anti-democratic. The bill also raises questions about Poland’s role in the Holocaust. It echoes the country’s communist-era…

  By Tamara Micner Sep 11, 2016 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  That Time I Came Face to Face With an Anti-Semite in Brooklyn

  It’s not often that I get an opportunity to come face-to-face with one of the extremists whose activities, in my work as a research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League, I am charged with following and exposing. But on Wednesday night it happened that one of the most ardent spokespeople for anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories was…

  By Marilyn Mayo Sep 9, 2016 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  I Refuse To Let Insane Day School Tuition Price My Kids Out of Orthodoxy

  It’s that time of year again: My Facebook newsfeed is filled with smiling kids in back-to-school photos. This is the first year I’ve seen my friends’ children, who are the same age as my oldest, heading off to school. While many have been sent off to daycare prior, for the first time my daughter’s peers…

  By Bethany Mandel Sep 8, 2016 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  The Real Key To Understanding Why Some Jews Will Vote for Donald Trump

  We Americans aren’t who we thought we were. That’s why our presidential contest, like the rest of our politics, is so incoherent. We argue about jobs, immigration, abortion and guns. But those aren’t really what’s at stake. In reality we’re fighting over the nature of American society, and our problem is that we’ve become a…

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

  The Jewish Left Needs To Call Out Real Anti-Semites Like Christopher Bollyn

  The fact that the Brooklyn Commons, a progressive community space and café in New York, has refused to cancel an event with 9/11 conspiracy theorist Christopher Bollyn — despite calls from Jewish and non-Jewish progressive organizations and media outlets — reveals a couple of important things about the conversation around rising anti-Semitism happening in the…

  By Naomi Dann Sep 7, 2016 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  From America to Israel, Should Our National Anthems Be Changed?

  One is a superstar professional football player in a nation that considers the gridiron to be holy ground. The other is an Arab Israeli with a permanent seat on his nation’s highest and most revered court of law. Despite their minority status, the athlete born of a single white mother and an African American father…

  By Jane Eisner Sep 7, 2016 | 4 min read