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
What the Movement for Black Lives Teaches Us About the Appeal of BDS
Why did the newly released Movement for Black Lives platform call Israel an “apartheid state” and accuse it of “genocide” against Palestinians? Mainstream Jews and radical activists want to debate the justice or morality of the platform, but neither group is interested in explaining how it came to be. But that means they are missing…
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Opinion Politics From the Pulpit? Be Careful What You Ask For in the Age of Trump
For years, conservative evangelicals have argued that federal law should be changed to permit churches to be more politically active, including allowing their preachers to endorse candidates from the pulpit. But this year, they may want to be careful about what they ask for. Ironically, in the Age of Trump, it’s the more liberal churches…
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Opinion Is Pokemon Go the End of Religion?
To fans, the smartphone-based Pokemon Go is a delicious addiction. To detractors, it’s a dangerous one. Its real significance, though, runs deeper than anyone is saying. Pokemon Go is the most successful “augmented reality” game yet, superimposing Pokemon characters on real-world settings taken from your smartphone’s camera. Rather than players leaving the real world to…
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Opinion Avigdor Lieberman Is Sorry-Not-Sorry for Comparing Iran Deal to Hitler Deal
The long-simmering tension between Israel’s generals and their politician bosses flared up in early August into a near-crisis in U.S.-Israel relations. It’s an almost comically complicated caper, so pay close attention. You can’t make this stuff up. It began as an attack on President Obama by Israel’s defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, over last year’s Iran…
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Opinion This Mosaic Is Uniting Jews and Arabs Across Israel
The many issues that divide people in Israeli society tend to drag me down, so I try to focus on projects that build community to hearten and inspire me. Since December, I’ve been involved in one such endeavor that’s connecting people regardless of religion, background or age. As a liaison in Galilee Medical Center’s International…
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Opinion What They Confiscated from My Daughter at the Western Wall
This is not a story about Women of the Wall. That is a story for someone else to tell. So many women have been dedicated to that cause for so many years. I am just a sometimes joiner. A tourist, if you will. But my daughters really wanted to go. So, despite my dislike of…
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Opinion Stop Being So Arrogant, White Jews. Black Lives Matter Is Not About You.
Last week, the Movement for Black Lives released a comprehensive and provocative platform called “A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom, and Justice.” Because of a sentence that ambiguously called for divestment from Israel, Jewish media outlets immediately declared the document A Vision for the Destruction of the Jewish State. Thankfully…
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Opinion Black Lives Matter to U.K. Jews — Unless Israel Gets in the Way
Until now, Black Lives Matter has been seen as a U.S. movement; its website lists Toronto as its only international chapter. That all changed on Friday, as Black Lives Matter U.K. hit the headlines when, as part of a coordinated day of action, the movement blocked roads across the U.K., most notably the route to…
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Opinion How Studying Talmud Helped Me Understand Racism in America
Every morning this summer my subway commute features roughly the same routine: Read the news and study the Talmud. From 238th street all the way to 72nd street, I am bombarded with the brutality of racism in America, and then with stories from a 1500-year-old Jewish text. Studying one page of Talmud a day, a…
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Opinion Human Biodiversity: the Pseudoscientific Racism of the Alt-Right
There’s a piece of the “alt-right” puzzle of bigotry you need to know more about: “human biodiversity.” An ideological successor to eugenics, human biodiversity (HBD) is, like eugenics (from the Greek words for “good” and “breeding”) primarily a euphemism. Ostensibly, HBD refers to the scientifically proven (and therefore apolitical) genetic differences between groups of humans….
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Opinion An Evangelical Pastor Takes Trump to Task
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. — Luke 6:45 This particular election cycle has been very very difficult for me. See, I’m a Pastor of a…
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