Opinion

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  From Black Hats to Egalitarian Prayer — and Back?

  Growing up in an Orthodox environment, there was a word I kept hearing. It was dirty. Worse, it was said with derision. It signified weird people who were non-traditional. Or worse, non-observant. Egalitarian. But I eventually left yeshiva and entered college. I was observant, but I started getting a crash course in Judaism-that’s-not-like-my-Judaism. It was…

  By Eli Reiter

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  No, Ann Coulter Is Not an Anti-Semite

  (JTA) — During the course of the second Republican presidential debate, Ann Coulter, the well-known commentator, writer, speaker and provocateur, tweeted: “How many f—ing Jews do these people think there are in the United States?” Her explanation was that she had grown frustrated with the candidates’ remarks that concentrated on things nearly all Republicans agree on…

  By Dennis Prager Sep 27, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Boehner’s Successor Will Be Pro-Israel. Here’s Why Netanyahu Should Worry Anyway.

  Here’s a sure bet: the next Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives will be just as supportive of Israel, in general, and of Benjamin Netanyahu, in particular, as John Boehner ever was during his almost five years at the helm. In today’s Republican Party, unabashed backing for Israel and whatever policy it pursues is…

  By Chemi Shalev (Haaretz) Sep 27, 2015 | 3 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

  The Last Time Children Were This Vulnerable Was World War II

  Preparing for the High Holidays, I ask myself: “Have I done enough this year? Have I made a difference? What more can I do?” This year, these questions brought a particular picture to mind: the haunting image of Aylan Kurdi, the little Syrian boy whose body washed up on the shore of a beach in…

  By Caryl Stern Sep 27, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How Israel Can — and Should — Help Refugees

  The kerchief-covered mother, a refugee desperately holding her children, reminds me of my aunt as she desperately held her child, wandering over the ruins of Europe. The refugees begging frantically to board the trains remind me of the relatives I never knew, who boarded trains to their death. For us as Jews, the Holocaust always…

  By Eetta Prince-Gibson Sep 26, 2015 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Hey, What Ever Happened to the ‘Existential Threat’ of Iran?

  The recently retired chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, gave an important talk this morning at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, summing up the current state of Israeli security. You can watch the whole thing (it’s in English) here. I’ll have a fuller analysis of what’s new…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 25, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What Jimmy and Tim Taught Me About Catholics and Jews Getting Along

  Several months before the Second Vatican Council adopted its landmark document, Nostra Aetate, my family moved about a half-mile across our New Jersey hometown. That minor distance spanned the dividing line between the attendance zones for two elementary schools, meaning that at age 10 I was abruptly separated from my childhood friends. Though I went…

  By Samuel G. Freedman Sep 24, 2015 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘Difficult People’ Proves It’s Still the Golden Age of Jews Mocking Jews

  When “Curb Your Enthusiasm” began its indefinite hiatus four years ago, it seemed like the end. The end (perhaps temporarily) of one of my favorite shows, and then end of a golden age of Jewish comedy. Yes, there would continue to be Jews in comedy, but the phenomenon of the Jews using Jews as fodder…

  By Elissa Strauss Sep 24, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Does Everybody Sound So Anti-Semitic All of a Sudden?

  You don’t have to be paranoid to sense a new strain of anti-Semitism surfacing in American politics of late. Paranoia helps, but it’s not required. We sense anti-Semitism when a media personality of Ann Coulter’s stature tweets about “f—king Jews” looming too large in Republican thinking. When The New York Times runs lists of Congress…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 24, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Who’s Afraid of Jeremy Corbyn? No, Not All British Jews.

  As a British Jew who supports Jeremy Corbyn, I was a little surprised to read Liam Hoare’s piece “.” It is disorientating to hear a group of which you are a member described as being univocal, particularly when the description fails to match your lived experience. Hoare’s tendency to present the British Jewish community to…

  By Joseph Finlay Sep 24, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The More Polite Brand of Greek Anti-Semitism

  As Greeks voted on Sunday in their third election this year, my wife and I hiked up the stunningly beautiful Mount Hymettus. When we reached the top, we were rewarded with a panoramic view of Athens. But we also found a large red swastika, painted alongside other graffiti. Later that evening, we learned that the…

  By Jonathan Zimmerman Sep 23, 2015 | 3 min read