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
Can Bernie Sanders Breathe New Life Into the Black-Jewish Alliance?
Hillary Clinton’s success at edging out Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucuses and her strong footing going into South Carolina seemed to vindicate her argument that she’s the only serious Democratic primary candidate. Sure, Sanders won big in New Hampshire, but that’s a small, white state that was predisposed to vote for him, the senator…
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Opinion It’s Time for Jews To Pray and Preach About Abortion — Like Christians Do
I want Jews to pray for reproductive justice, and I want rabbis to lead them. On March 2, the eight-person Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, the most significant abortion case in a decade. At issue in the case is whether Texas’s absurd and completely medically unjustified restrictions on…
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Opinion Fast-Growing BBYO Brings Jewy Energy to Teens
(JTA) — My teenage years were pretty Jewy. Back in high school, I happily attended Jewish day school, spent summers at a Jewish camp, went on a group Israel trip and took part in a few youth group events. So it was a strange feeling I experienced over President’s Day weekend when I found myself…
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Opinion This Anti-BDS Video Is Pure Hilarity — and Accidental Genius
(CORRECTED BELOW) News flash: the BDS movement does not, in fact, urge supporters to shoot Dannon yogurt containers with rifles. That, however, is how it’s depicted in a four-minute video titled “BDS or the Bible.” Social media users are already having a field day with the video — Sarah Schulman dubs it “a cross between…
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Opinion Why Ted Cruz’s Preacher Sidekick Is No Friend of the Jews — or Israel
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has come under fire from Jewish groups after touting his endorsement from Mike Bickle, an evangelical leader being scrutinized for preaching that God sent Hitler to hunt the Jews. This single statement, though, is just one element of Bickle’s divisive repertoire. Bickle, a charismatic Christian who believes he receives prophecies…
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Opinion Why Accuse Israeli Singer Noa of Backing BDS, When She Rejects It Outright?
True story: Born in Israel to Yemenite parents, the girl was raised in the U.S. from a very young age. At 15, she went on a summer hiking trip in Israel and fell in love with an Israeli man. The next year she left her yeshiva in New York and moved to Israel, where she…
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Opinion VIDEO: Noa Talks Israel, Anti-Semitism, Sexism and Songwriting
Misogyny in the music industry, anti-Semitism in Europe and the glory of Carole King were just a few of the topics that Israeli singer Noa and Forward editor-in-chief Jane Eisner covered during a February 16 conversation at New York City’s Temple Emanu-El. Noa took to the stage earlier that evening, performing an hour-long set packed…
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Opinion No, Vassar Isn’t a Hotbed of Anti-Semitism. Trust Me, I Should Know!
My mom isn’t sleeping. Either she spends the night reading articles about anti-Semitism at Vassar, or she reads them during the day and then stays up at night worrying. I was admitted to Vassar three years ago this spring, and it was my parents who encouraged me to choose this liberal arts school out of…
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Opinion Can Supreme Court Take a Lesson from Jewish Law on Scalia Replacement?
Within minutes of the announcement of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, the wrangling started. Should President Obama nominate a successor in an election year? Should the Senate give the president’s choice a respectful hearing? I don’t have much to add to these debates. But I do worry about our current distorted sense of the relation between…
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Opinion Stop Trying To Steal Bernie Sanders’s Red Flag — and Mine
In the spring of 1968 I had a transformative experience that changed my self-awareness as a Jew and an American. I’ve been thinking about that moment a lot since Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign turned serious — and especially since the story of his kibbutz connection has gotten him slammed as a communist. I was spending…
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Letters Synagogues and Independent Congregations Are Allies, Not Enemies
I’m grateful to the Forward for reprinting the JTA story about the , a new partnership of communities that is attracting the young and unaffiliated. It is a great story, and there is one nuance I would like to lift up. While the tempting story to tell is one that links the declining synagogue affiliation…
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