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
‘Never Again’ Means Taking Cue From Protesters and Confronting Donald Trump
On social media and over drinks, American liberals are discussing — sometimes jokingly and sometimes not — how to move to Canada if Donald Trump makes it into the White House. Between the violence against minorities at Trump rallies, the Nazi-like salutes and the candidate’s choice to tweet a quotation from Benito Mussolini, the idea…
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Opinion I Won’t Send My Students to Oberlin College Anymore
As a high school teacher in suburban Chicago, I have written many recommendation letters for students who hoped to attend Oberlin College, and several of my wonderful young students have attended and graduated from Oberlin. But I will no longer be writing recommendation letters to that college, and I encourage my colleagues in secondary education…
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Opinion How Donald Trump Scared the Jews, Won the Election — and Saved Israel (This Is No Purim Spiel!)
The campaign was even harsher than anyone had predicted. After being told by his advisers that there simply wasn’t enough time to win over enough African, Hispanic or Asian Americans, Donald Trump went for broke, in an effort to secure the 72% of the white vote that he would need in order to stand a…
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Opinion The Mizrahi-Palestinian Intersectionality Nobody’s Talking About
If you’ve been tuned in to the Israel-Palestine conversation over the past few months, you’ve probably heard the word The idea that different forms of oppression are linked — so that standing up for victims of sexism and homophobia should also mean that we stand up for, say, victims of Israeli state violence — has…
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Opinion A Note to Forward Readers From the Publisher
It’s no surprise that the media business has changed dramatically in recent years. At the Forward, we have been working for years to shift to digital, and to create a first-rate news organization that fits the times. We’re truly the Jewish “Daily” Forward in ways we’ve never been – with record web audience, a strong…
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Opinion With ‘Jewish Super Tuesday’ Looming, Republicans Take New Plunge Into Deep End on Israel
More than 1.2 million Jews live in the states participating in next Tuesday’s primaries, affectionately dubbed “Super Duper Tuesday.” Some 650,000 of them reside in Florida, comprising about 3.5 percent of the general population, though their electoral weight might be much greater: Florida Jews are significantly older than the rest of the population, with a…
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Opinion What Jewish Law Says About Crumbling Indian Point Nuclear Plant
What does an ox’s propensity for violence have to do with a leaky nuclear reactor? One is an ancient, Jewish example of negligence; the other is a very contemporary one. But the ethical imperative is the same: When there’s an imminent risk of danger to the public, it’s morally wrong to do nothing. Let’s start…
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Opinion When I Cringe at the Views of Israelis — and Donald Trump
When I first heard the number, I cringed. Could it really be that nearly half of Israeli Jews support the expulsion or transfer of the Arab population, as a new study by the Pew Research Center reported? I wondered if the question was too vague, or if the word “transfer” could be interpreted as a…
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Opinion How Bernie Sanders Pulled Off the Biggest Political Upset in 32 Years — and What It Means
America may yet elect its first Jewish president next fall. That’s the bottom line from Tuesday’s primaries, thanks to the Democratic voters in Michigan. True, Bernie Sanders remains a distinct long shot for his party’s presidential nod. But while a Sanders nomination is still unlikely, that’s a yuuuge step up from near-impossible, which is where…
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Opinion Why Can’t Prison Figure Out How a Minyan Works? It’s Not That Complicated!
I guess it isn’t surprising that it’s hard to find a minyan — a quorum of 10 Jews — in a North Carolina prison. I just didn’t think that was something I’d ever be learning from the Supreme Court. But that’s precisely what Supreme Court Justice Alito told us in one of his recent dissenting…
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Opinion How Both Sides of BDS Debate Get Oberlin Anti-Semitism Wrong
Even when the BDS debate reached a crescendo at Oberlin College in 2013, I never felt unsafe on campus. It’s true that as an Israeli-American junior, and as co-founder and co-chair of the college’s J Street U chapter, I was uncomfortable publicly identifying as a Zionist. But I had access to peers, administrators and college…
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Opinion We must rewrite the rulebook for fighting antisemitism — or conspiracists like Joe Kent will win the narrative wars
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