Opinion

• Letters

  Tax the Jewish Community to Pay for Jewish Day School

  In response to JJ Goldberg’s October 19 piece Dear Forward, It is time to “tax” the Jewish community to pay for Jewish day school. [The document] should also say that every Jewish professional should be protected from being fired if they advocate Jewish day school vehemently from their perch, bimah or position. I also thought…

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  What Americans Don’t Know About the Middle East Conflict and Why

  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows better than anyone else that if we Palestinians are permitted to engage non-violently, odds are we will expose Israel’s military occupation for what it is, a system of modern-day apartheid or worse. This is why, following his March election victory, Netanyahu assembled an extreme right-wing cabinet that would work…

  By Sam Bahour Oct 28, 2015 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Why Barack Obama Is No Bill Clinton When It Comes to Israel

  (JTA) — By now it should be obvious how absurd it is to call President Barack Obama Israel’s “best friend” ever, as Thomas Friedman of The New York Times has claimed. A Blame Israel Firster, Obama won’t use his moral authority to try stopping the instigators of this latest spate of violence, the Palestinians. Unfortunately he…

  By Gil Troy Oct 27, 2015 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson Being Jewish in America today feels like walking multiple tightropes at once

  

• Rob Eshman A precise, Chekhovian logic guided Israel’s strike on Iran — but chaos could come next

  

• Nora Berman Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was never going to help Palestinians

  

• Dan Perry Celebrating my daughter’s birthday in a bomb shelter, as missiles struck Tel Aviv

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s latest move makes Mahmoud Khalil a Joseph for our times

  

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  Opinion

  How the Middle East Conflict Is Warping Judaism

  Sunday will be the 12th of Cheshvan, a grim anniversary: 20 years since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. He was shot on a Saturday night after the world’s synagogues read the Torah portion Lech Lecha, the first night of the week looking toward the next reading, VaYera, the “binding of Isaac.” But in real life,…

  By Jeremy Kalmanofsky Oct 27, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How Can I Fight the Fear That’s Eroding My Values?

  The fear is getting to me, gnawing away at who I am and who I want to be. I think of myself as a person with multiple identities and roles. I am a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a professional, an academic, an activist. I try to hold to a clear set of…

  By Eetta Prince-Gibson Oct 27, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  I Survived the Terror Attack in Beersheva

  I survived a terror attack. The words roll off my tongue. I. Survived. A terror attack. People are telling me that what happened to me was a miracle. I’m supposed to feel relief for surviving, for coming out of it in one piece, unharmed. I’m flooded with many feelings, but relief isn’t one. I am…

  By Moran Mekamel Oct 26, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Did the Torah Give Rabin’s Assassin License To Kill?

  On November 4, we will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the tragic assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, murdered by Yigal Amir while speaking at a rally in Tel Aviv in favor of peace and reconciliation. Although Amir pulled the trigger, the arsenal he employed included the edict of various rabbis who provided a cloak of halachic…

  By Simeon Kolko Oct 26, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Yitzhak Rabin Has an Urgent Message for Israelis — But They Can’t Hear It Now

  It has been 20 years since the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The assassination was easily one of the most significant moments in Israel’s brief history, and arguably in Jewish history altogether. Why has there been so little talk of it — and so limited a commemoration — in the Jewish public square?…

  By Yehuda Kurtzer Oct 26, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Curious Case of Azerbaijan and Its Jew-Loving Muslims

  In April, the Kantor Center in Tel Aviv released a report highlighting that 2014 was one of the worst years for anti-Semitism in the last decade. This coincided with Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas. Many of the anti-Semitic incidents that took place, and especially some of the more violent ones, took place in Western…

  By Justin Amler Oct 26, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Watching the Violence in Israel From Abroad

  Comic: An Israeli expat watched the violence in Israel from abroad. You can find Lior Zaltzman’s work at , Saturday, November 7.

  By Lior Zaltzman Oct 26, 2015 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Is Chabad Helping Christian Extremists?

  As readers of this column know, I have long praised Chabad Lubavitch’s spirituality, its outreach tactics and its mystical roots. But over the past several years, Chabad leaders have begun propping up far-right Christian extremists — not mere cultural conservatives, or right-wing politicians, but the extreme fringe that opposes human rights and, in some cases,…

  By Jay Michaelson Oct 26, 2015 | 4 min read