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
What Brussels Taught This Israeli About Terror — and Tolerance
It was the end of the summer of 1994 when my family and I left Israel for the Zaventem airport in Brussels. Yitzhak Rabin was prime minister. Murmurs of peace still permeated the air, muddled with the tumult and rise of terror: Muslims praying at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron had been murdered…
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Opinion We Want to Hear Stories of Your Inspiring Rabbi
Nearly every day, I encounter a rabbi who inspires me. The rabbi with whom I am learning Talmud, my first sustained study of the foundational text. The rabbi who guides her synagogue members to confront end-of-life medical and spiritual issues before the end of their lives. The rabbi who serves Jews and non-Jews alike in…
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Opinion After Protesting Trump at AIPAC, Will Rabbis Go Public With Their Politics?
When the American Israel Public Affairs Committee invited Republican front-runner Donald Trump to address its annual policy conference, it unintentionally achieved something remarkable: The lobby spurred rabbis from across the denominational spectrum to express their political views in public — even if it meant catching hell from their congregants. This is the first time I…
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Opinion A Humbled AIPAC Is Paying a Price for Growth
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold …” As jarring as it was to see the adulation Donald Trump received from the crowd at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference, that wasn’t the most startling moment in the lobby’s encounter with the billionaire Republican front-runner. No, the real shockeroo came the next morning,…
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Opinion Trump Is Not Hitler and He’s Not Haman — He’s Ahasuerus
With Purim around the corner, it occurs to me that many people see Donald Trump as Haman, the genocidal villain of the Purim story. That’s not quite right: He’s Ahasuerus, a different kind of danger, and one that’s worth contemplating today. In case you need a refresher, Ahasuerus, in the Book of Esther, is the…
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Opinion AIPAC’s Applause for Donald Trump Sends a Shameful Message
(UPDATED) So, what kind of American Jewish community do we want to be? I ask myself that question after the drama over Donald Trump’s speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference. How it is answered may come to define us during this tense and trying election season. We could be the community…
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Opinion Is Ultra-Orthodox Support for Donald Trump a Contradiction?
Ultra-Orthodox Jews who support Donald Trump are caught in a contradiction between the values of their communities and the behavior of their chosen candidate. They purport to value modesty, yet they back a man who jokes about penis size during a Republican debate. They claim to value upright speech, but they prefer the candidate who…
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Opinion Vassar Through the Eyes of a Non-Jewish Zionist Professor
The atmosphere at Vassar College, where I’ve been teaching Russian history since 1999, is troubled. I am not Jewish, but even I have experienced an increase in hostility and strained silences among students and colleagues. I have been called a “f—king fascist,” “Zionist” and “idiot” for speaking out against Vassar’s BDS resolution and speaking up…
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Opinion Opposing Trump at AIPAC Is No Partisan Stance — It’s Jewish and All-American Patriotism
This evening, at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference, Donald Trump will take the stage, bringing with him messages of hate, intolerance and violence. I will not sit idly by. I refuse to sit, and in that refusal I am united with my fellow rabbis against the politics of hate and its implications….
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Opinion My Trump Tweets Earned Me So Many Anti-Semitic Haters That I Bought a Gun
As any high-profile Twitter user with a Jewish-sounding last name can tell you, the surest way to see anti-Semitism flood your mentions column is to tweet something negative about Donald Trump. My anti-Trump tweets have been met with such terrifying and profound anti-Semitism that I bought a gun earlier this month. Over the coming weeks,…
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Opinion Trump’s AIPAC Speech Is Totally Predictable. What About Our Response?
While Jews ardently dispute whether AIPAC should have invited Donald Trump to speak to their Washington conference, that particular die has been cast. The invitation went out. So Trump — the loudest, most poisonous, nativist, mob-arousing, bigoted public person that America has yet produced in this century — is going to stand at the rostrum of a…
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Opinion Who’s responsible for deadly antisemitism? Everyone will hate the answer
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Antisemitism Decoded The antisemites are enjoying themselves
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Culture A New York Jewish childhood at the Dalton School where privilege met progressivism