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 Poland Is Targeting Holocaust Scholar Jan T. Gross for the Sin of Remembering
The anti-Semitic bloodbath that consumed the small Polish town of Jedwabne on July 10, 1941 might have been forgotten to history were it not for the scholarship of the Polish-American historian Jan T. Gross. Now, it would seem, Poland’s new government wishes Gross himself could be forgotten. In his short study, “Neighbors,” published in 2001,…
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Opinion I Was the ‘Child Who Does Not Know How To Ask’ — About My Father’s Suicide
Passover is here. It is usually one of my favorite holidays. I love the ritual of preparing the house, the smell of the food and the joyous atmosphere at the Seder table. But this year is different. Passover begins only three days after the one year anniversary of my father’s suicide. My father was trapped…
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Opinion I’m Seeking Freedom From the Organized Jewish Community This Passover
Preparing this column, I thought of many “profound” things to say about Passover. I’m a rabbi, after all, as well as an ex-lawyer, writer, speaker, teacher — I know how to gab. And the holiday is a goldmine of inspiration: themes of liberation, kinesthetic rituals, DIY Jewish observances, fascinating texts and histories. But everything I…
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Letters Free Speech Is Not the Issue With CUNY’s Students for Justice in Palestine
To the Editor: The so-called “Students for Justice in Palestine” group and its allies falsely claim that those who are objecting to the SJP’s actions at The City University of New York are trying to stifle the SJP’s free speech and prevent criticism of Israel (“New Challenge for CUNY Over Alleged Anti-Semitism,” April 8, 2016)….
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Opinion Why It Was Right To Suspend Simone Zimmerman from Bernie Sanders Campaign
Simone Zimmerman had to be suspended. Not that I have any problem with her passion. Or, truth be told, with most of her politics. And certainly it’s hard not to be impressed by Zimmerman, the brilliant and eloquent organizer, a driving force within J Street U and IfNotNow, still in her mid-20s. (I wish Zimmerman…
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Opinion How Ronit Elkabetz Gave Mizrahi Women Like Me Permission To Dream Big
The first time I saw Ronit Elkabetz in a movie, I didn’t find her beautiful. Her striking, sharp features seemed too strange and dark. And her intensity made me uncomfortable. A high school student at the time and an aspiring actress (a regrettable phase), I had bought into the beauty ideals the Israeli media had…
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Opinion This Passover, We’re Joining Simone Zimmerman To Fight for Freedom for All
When the American Jewish establishment went after Simone Zimmerman, Bernie Sanders’s recent pick as his liaison to the Jewish community and a longtime social justice activist and organizer, it made a clear statement to an entire generation of young Jews: If you dare to depart from our position on Israel, you are not welcome in…
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Opinion What Campaign Donor Lists Tell Us About Changing Nature of Jewish Political Power
Who speaks for the Jews? It’s an age-old question that’s often asked by partisans of every Jewish cause. What we usually mean is: Who pleads the Jewish case in the halls of decision-making? And no less important: Who decides what is the Jewish agenda? This campaign season we need to ask another question that sounds…
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Opinion How Hillary’s Speech Patterns Reveal Biggest Advantage Over Bernie
Hillary Clinton is the most thoughtful candidate, the most “talkative,” “optimistic” and “positive.” That’s according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal — a newspaper that is not exactly a fan of Clinton. Offering a textual analysis of the article concluded that Clinton’s language “indicated more cognitive processing, rather than self-certainty, a signal…
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Opinion When Ashkenazi Jews Eat Kitniyot on Passover, Is It Cultural Appropriation — from Sephardim?
How do millions of Ashkenazi Jews react when, after hundreds of years, they finally get permission to eat kitniyot on Passover? We’re about to find out. Last December, the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards approved a teshuvah, a Jewish legal ruling, permitting the consumption of kitniyot on Passover. Kitniyot — foods like…
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Opinion How To Talk Politics at Your Family Seder Without Killing Each Other
An estimated 70% of American Jews participate in a Passover Seder — in any Jewish religious observance. This year, as we recount the story of the Exodus and symbolically taste the bitterness of slavery, we also must ask what, in 2016, makes this Passover different? At my Seder table this year, as we remember how…
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