Opinion

• Opinion

  Just How Deeply Split Is Jewish Public on Iran Deal?

  Looking at the public opinion polling on the Iran nuclear deal over the past few months, it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that there are some sharp differences — among Americans in general and among American Jews in particular. What might surprise you are the differences between the surveys themselves. It seems a slight difference…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  7 min read
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  Opinion

  How Ann Coulter Made It Kosher To Hate Jews

  It’s not exactly news when Ann Coulter . Her business has long been to provoke — and business is good. But with the rise of Donald Trump in the Republican primary for the presidency, Ann Coulter has gotten more outlandish than ever, and in a brand new way. While the old Ann Coulter was insulting…

  By Karol Markowicz Sep 17, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Letters

  We Can Do More to Teach Children to Be Part of the Community

  Dear Parent: I recently read in the Forward about a father (Neal) whose son has decided not to celebrate his bar mitzvah. There is no question that for many of us and our children the moment on the bima is full of meaning. Reading Torah, teaching a D’var Torah, leading the service. Our children learn…

  Sep 17, 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 My brother-in-law’s kibbutz weathered Oct. 7. Then came the Iranian missile strikes

  

• 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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Sympathy for Syrian Refugees — But Not African Asylum Seekers?

  The mainstream and Jewish media have both finally raised the world’s refugee crisis to the status it deserves in our news feeds and we, Jewish Americans, cannot help but feel immense sympathy for the Syrian refugees. We want to do whatever we can to help and we should. I have heard of a number of…

  By Maya Paley Sep 17, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Israel Must Bury Hatchet With U.S. Over Iran — Now

  The congressional debate on the Iran nuclear deal is over. President Obama has prevailed. The United States will implement the P5+1 agreement with Iran. Israel will have to live with it. In sharp contrast with Washington, no real public discussion of the deal’s details was ever conducted in Israel. Most of the opposition patriotically sided…

  By Efraim Halevy Sep 17, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Letters

  Four Anguished Questions on the Refugee Crisis

  Dear Editor: Lipstadt’s on the moral and political issues concerning policy on the Syrian refugee crisis raises four issues that trouble the author. One of the questions the author asks, is the “extent to which these new immigrants will commit to democratic principles.” This argument was raised several times at a Rosh Hashanah dinner I…

  Sep 16, 2015 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Let’s Make Israeli Culture a Uniting Force for Jews Everywhere

  Rosh Hashanah is a time for taking stock. We size up that which we have and that which we are lacking, and we try to make out the course corrections we need to close the gap. As I see it, one of the greatest things we have going for us as a people is the…

  By Ido Aharoni Sep 16, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  What Shouldn’t We Compare to the Holocaust? A Refugee Crisis, for Starters.

  Even if we can’t agree on anything else, there’s one cardinal fact that I think we can all get behind: This has been a summer of intense drama where the Middle East is concerned. Also a summer filled with evocations of the Holocaust. And they’re not unrelated. One reason for the intensity of the drama…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 14, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Ring In the New Year: Top Tunes to Atone To

  This Rosh Hashanah concert began five years ago as a sort of mood piece. I decided last year to expand it and include riffs off of some core elements in the Rosh Hashanah service itself. Some folks have been asking me to repost it, so here it is. You’ll notice that when you click on…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 14, 2015 | 14 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Refugees’ Plight Is Personal for Me — and All Jews

  They come by the thousands now. Day after day, night after night. By sea and overland. They have been coming for far longer than just this summer, but suddenly, in the past few weeks, in their tremendous numbers and their family units, their presence is finally seen. They are body to body in Keleti station…

  By Sarah Wildman Sep 13, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why There Are Still Only Two Choices in Syria — Bad and Worse

  The mysterious visit to Moscow in late July by Iran’s international troublemaker-in-chief, the shadowy head of the feared Quds Force, may just have found an explanation. It’s either terrifying or vaguely reassuring, depending on how you read the Middle East. Specifically, how you feel about the Moscow visit will depend on whom you’d rather see…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 11, 2015 | 4 min read