Opinion

• Opinion

  Building Alliance With Israel Is Good Business Too

  Relations between the United States and Israel embody significant history and shared values. And, as we all know, sometimes those relations consist of disagreements and obstacles. Especially now, when we see neighboring countries collapsing and thousands of people risking their lives in search of a better future, we should remind ourselves that the ability to…

  By Ofra Strauss

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  My Year of Living Jewishly

  “Did it change you?” That’s what people ask me, those who have followed this year of holiday reporting — my first foray into the complete Jewish calendar. The answer is yes. And no. Yes, because I now understand the substructures of every holiday — ancient and modern, mournful and exultant. No, because I’m not rushing…

  By Abigail Pogrebin Sep 9, 2015 | 9 min read
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  Opinion

  4 Reasons We Should Think Before Acting Rashly on Migrant Crisis

  I have watched the unfolding refugee crisis with horror. Who could not be moved by the sight of families risking their children’s lives in rickety boats and on rafts designed for leisure and not for escape routes on rough waters? The picture of little Aylan Kurdi in blue shorts and red shirt dead on the…

  By Deborah E. Lipstadt Sep 9, 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 Zohran Mamdani is right about what ‘intifada’ means — well, kind of

  

• 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

  My Jewish Responsibility To Help Refugees

  (JTA) — As our car rolled slowly toward Budapest, we saw a huge group heading in the opposite direction on the highway just outside the city: Hundreds of people quietly walking in the breakdown lane, marching toward freedom and peace. I couldn’t tell if the other drivers were lifting their heads or not, but I couldn’t…

  By Julia Kaldori Sep 8, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What the ‘Auschwitz Showers’ Fiasco Teaches Us About Holocaust Tourism

  (JTA) — Pawel Sawicki gets to his desk every morning by 7, but he works no regular office job. Sawicki is an information officer at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Memorial and Museum, the sprawling complex in southern Poland that encompasses the largest and most notorious Nazi death camp. More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered…

  By Ruth Ellen Gruber Sep 8, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Sandy Koufax’s Sitting Out on Yom Kippur Still Matters

  (JTA) — Jesse Agler was pretty talented as a catcher and pitcher in Little League, yet his parents benched him regularly. That’s because the Aglers had a no-baseball-on-Shabbat rule, one cloaked in sports royalty. “It was a source of frustration as a kid, but I appreciated later what they tried to do,” said Agler, a 33-year-old…

  By Hillel Kuttler Sep 8, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Haunted by Holocaust, Israel Ponders Whether to Crack Door Open to Refugees

  The world has been affected by the images of desperate refugees fleeing Syria, but for Israelis, the crisis cuts close to home, not only because the conflict they are fleeing is right across the border, but because pictures of the crowds at the Keleti train station and the marches across Europe are playing on the…

  By Allison Kaplan Sommer (Haaretz) Sep 7, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  What American Jewish Fear Looks Like Through Israeli Eyes

  In recent weeks I’ve had many conversations with friends from the United States, some while they were visiting in Israel, others through correspondence and phone calls. In all these talks the issue of Iran came up. “What do you think?” they asked me, the Israeli. “Are you afraid?” Like many other confused lay people, I…

  By Elan Ezrachi Sep 7, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What Syrian Refugees Have To Say About Coexistence With Israel

  The refugee crisis is making headlines the world over. Here in Hungary, most refugees arriving treat the country as a stop, part of a longer journey to Western Europe. Thousands are taking temporary shelter in one of Budapest’s three main train stations. The lower level of the Keleti train station links directly with the entrance…

  By Shahar Shoham Sep 6, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Has the American Jewish Left Lost All Sense of Boundaries?

  Helped by Michael Douglas and J Street, I have recently become increasingly painfully aware, in the most personal and intense way, of the growing rift between traditional Judaism and everything else that calls itself Jewish. Mind you, I’ve been a Jewish journalist for more than 40 years and I’ve associated professionally and spiritually with almost…

  By Yori Yanover Sep 6, 2015 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Will Anti-Semitism Drive Turkey’s Sephardic Jews to Spain?

  How about this for a Hollywood script? It’s 1492, and Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expel their Jewish subjects. In response, the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II sends ships to Spain to collect them. How nice of him. They flourish under Muslim rule and, centuries later, receive equal rights as citizens. Fast-forward to 2002 and…

  By Louis Fishman Sep 5, 2015 | 3 min read