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
Ditch JNF Tree-Planting and Reclaim the Real Roots of Tu B’Shvat
Baruch she-p’tarani m’eytz zeh! Blessed is the One who has freed me from the responsibility of this tree!” This time last year, I exclaimed this improvised blessing under the starry skies in the Jerusalem forest — as I burned branches of pine. What was a Jewish environmentalist doing burning branches on Tu B’Shvat, the holiday…
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Opinion Donald Trump Retweets Creator of Pic Showing Bernie Sanders Sent to Gas Chamber
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has been littered with odd moments, but this one takes the cake. This Friday, Trump’s official Twitter feed retweeted this Tweet that takes a jab at GOP rival Jeb Bush. It shows a photoshopped image of Bush in front of the Trump Towers, holding up a “Vote for Trump” sign. Seems…
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Opinion Why Most Jewish Environmentalism Is Useless — on Tu B’Shvat and Every Other Day
Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish “new year of the trees,” comes again on Sunday, January 24. In recent years, the holiday has become a much-needed day for thinking about, and taking action on, environmental issues. Too bad most of those actions will be counterproductive. For an illustration, consider the Aliso Canyon methane leak, which you probably…
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Opinion First Step to Reflecting Jews’ Real Values? Focus Less on Israel.
If it’s not American Jewish liberals who have betrayed Israel, but our organizations that have betrayed us — — then that leaves us with a question: What would a genuine Jewish public agenda look like? Here’s a quick recap of how we got to where we are: When the main American Jewish advocacy organizations arose…
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Opinion Who’s To Blame for Jewish Group Getting Booted from Gay Conference?
It’s been a busy week for the National LGBTQ Task Force. Jewish accusations of exclusionary behavior, silencing, anti-Semitism, being too harsh on Israel, being too easy on Israel — all this and more inundated the Task Force, and all because of a single event at the Creating Change Conference in Chicago. First the Task Force…
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Opinion Boycott the West Bank? Nope. Label Settlement Products? Well, OK.
The Israeli government’s intention to maintain the status quo in the territories it has occupied since 1967 is facing two new challenges. The Europeans want products made in the settlements to be labeled as such. And Human Rights Watch is calling for companies to stop doing business in the settlements altogether. Both moves are tactics…
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Opinion When Good Militia Men Go Jewish and Blow a Shofar — or Not
Mazel tov, you made it through another Yom Kippur! Um, wait, whoops. This video of two dudes blowing the shofar is not actually signaling the end of a Jewish synagogue service. It’s actually two far right-wing militia men in Burns, Oregon blowing into a quote-unquote “battle horn” during their occupation of a federal wildlife refuge….
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Opinion Every Single Frenchman Can Don a Kippah and It Still Won’t Help French Jews
To be or not to be…willing to wear a kippah in public? That is the question the French Jewish community, with Hamlet-like intensity and introspection, has been debating over the last few weeks. Even France’s non-Jews are making their opinions known, most notably by donning kippot in symbolic gestures of “solidarity.” It is, inevitably, a…
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Opinion Will Iran Really Change After Nuclear Deal? Looming Vote and Economy Will Tell Tale.
When people ask me where U.S.-Iran relations are headed following the initial implementation by both sides of the joint nuclear agreement, my thoughts turn not to big, world-moving possibilities but to something actually quite small: my purchase last July of a plane ticket from Tehran to the provincial city of Shiraz. Thanks to the international…
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Opinion ‘New York Values’ Are Plenty Religious — Just Not in the Way Ted Cruz Likes
To many Jews, Ted Cruz’s attack on Donald Trump’s “New York values” . We are familiar with Republicans suspicious of “money and the media,” because 20 years ago they were the people complaining that the golf club was getting crowded with hook-noses. But to religious Jews like me, this vision of a materialistic, secular New…
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Opinion Can Bernie Sanders Win Over Black Voters — and Crack Hillary Clinton’s Firewall?
There was a striking symbolism in the setting of Sunday night’s Democratic presidential debate. They couldn’t have picked a better place than Charleston, South Carolina. Coming in the midst of a Bernie Sanders surge that’s unsettling the once-inevitable Hillary Clinton campaign, the event had a good many party loyalists hoping to gain some clarity about…
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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 First Puka Nacua, now Mookie Betts: Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic around a Jewish streamer?
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Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
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Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
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Fast Forward In Reykjavik, Hanukkah offers a chance for Iceland’s tiny, isolated Jewish community to come together
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Opinion When my children decorate for Hanukkah, I don’t just see pride. I see pluralism in action.
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Fast Forward ‘The most Australian name’: Matilda, the youngest victim of the Bondi Beach attack, embodies a nation’s grief
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