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
How Can Israel End ‘Jewish Privilege’ When Most Citizens Believe They Deserve It?
A little-discussed finding in the reveals that while 79% of Arabs “say there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims in Israel,” only “21% of Israeli Jews” see things this way. Yet 79% of Israeli Jews say that they (the Jews) “deserve preferential treatment.” So there’s a paradox. Jews want the system to discriminate in…
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Opinion The Israeli Left Needs To Rethink Its Attitude Toward Settlers
My daughter Aviv recently walked into a public bathroom and found a Palestinian cleaner at work, humming to herself. Suddenly, a voice from within one of the stalls cried out in rage: “You’re singing, huh? Probably celebrating the terror attack in Istanbul!” The Palestinian woman did not respond. Then, from the stall: “I’ll burn you…
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Opinion Why Jews of Color Like Me Feel Unsafe After AIPAC’s Applause for Trump
When I heard that Donald Trump would be speaking at the AIPAC conference, I hoped that all Jews would recognize him for the racist demagogue that he is and reject him. Instead he gave his speech, delivered his red meat talking points on Israel, and by and large the crowd applauded him. Kippot with Trump’s…
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Opinion Who’s To Blame for Israeli Soldier Shooting Downed Palestinian Attacker?
Israelis were apparently scandalized this past week by a video showing an IDF soldier in Hebron shooting a wounded, incapacitated and unmoving Palestinian who had, a few minutes earlier, attacked another soldier with a knife, wounding him. The video that surfaced on Thursday was taken by a volunteer with the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem….
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Opinion AIPAC Now Creepily Resembles the NRA
As the members of the National Rifle Association gathered in Cincinnati for their annual convention in May 1977, the group superficially resembled the same bunch of hobbyists it had been for most of its century-long history. Two Civil War veterans had founded the NRA in 1871 out of a concern about how few Union soldiers…
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Opinion Can Merrick Garland Make the Supreme Court Talmudic Again?
Republicans may be defiantly blocking the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, but behind their public militancy is trembling fear. Failure to add a movement conservative to the vacancy left by Antonin Scalia balances the court so that it is no longer a partisan arm. Either Garland is eventually confirmed, or Republican intransigence…
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Opinion What Brussels Taught This Israeli About Terror — and Tolerance
It was the end of the summer of 1994 when my family and I left Israel for the Zaventem airport in Brussels. Yitzhak Rabin was prime minister. Murmurs of peace still permeated the air, muddled with the tumult and rise of terror: Muslims praying at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron had been murdered…
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Opinion We Want to Hear Stories of Your Inspiring Rabbi
Nearly every day, I encounter a rabbi who inspires me. The rabbi with whom I am learning Talmud, my first sustained study of the foundational text. The rabbi who guides her synagogue members to confront end-of-life medical and spiritual issues before the end of their lives. The rabbi who serves Jews and non-Jews alike in…
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Opinion After Protesting Trump at AIPAC, Will Rabbis Go Public With Their Politics?
When the American Israel Public Affairs Committee invited Republican front-runner Donald Trump to address its annual policy conference, it unintentionally achieved something remarkable: The lobby spurred rabbis from across the denominational spectrum to express their political views in public — even if it meant catching hell from their congregants. This is the first time I…
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Opinion A Humbled AIPAC Is Paying a Price for Growth
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold …” As jarring as it was to see the adulation Donald Trump received from the crowd at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference, that wasn’t the most startling moment in the lobby’s encounter with the billionaire Republican front-runner. No, the real shockeroo came the next morning,…
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Opinion Trump Is Not Hitler and He’s Not Haman — He’s Ahasuerus
With Purim around the corner, it occurs to me that many people see Donald Trump as Haman, the genocidal villain of the Purim story. That’s not quite right: He’s Ahasuerus, a different kind of danger, and one that’s worth contemplating today. In case you need a refresher, Ahasuerus, in the Book of Esther, is the…
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Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
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Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
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