Opinion

• Opinion

  I Don’t Care About Jewish Tribal Loyalty — And That Doesn’t Make Me Anxious

  The angst some American Jews feel over Jewish identity is captured beautifully in . As the outgoing opinion editor for the only national Jewish newspaper, he’s certainly had his ear to the ground. But it’s a very specific section of the ground: those who bother reading and debating in Jewish newspapers. I know those folks….

  By Paul Golin

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  My Prescription for the So-Called Pathology Plaguing American Jews

  In his final act as the Forward’s opinion editor, . The story was illustrated with a bottle of Xanax, but in the text Beckerman refrained from making any prescriptions, leaving us instead with the simple lament that we Jews are plagued with a “fundamental uncertainty and unease of not really knowing anymore what it means…

  By Elissa Strauss Aug 3, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Don’t Blame All Ultra-Orthodox for Actions of One Stabber

  The death of Shira Banki, one of the six marchers stabbed at the recent Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, was a horrific exclamation point to the indefensible rampage. Indefensible as well, though, were some reactions to the stabbings. Forward columnist declared that the actions of the stabber, now murderer, Yishai Schlissel, were the result of…

  Aug 3, 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 Might Iran become Trump’s Iraq? Americans are wary — but shouldn’t be

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s latest move makes Mahmoud Khalil a Joseph for our times

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  How Not To Cover a Gay Pride Parade Stabbing

  Instead of focusing on the violence involved, the human suffering or the actual blood being shed, some ultra-Orthodox newspapers focused only on philosophy. In response to the stabbings at Thursday’s Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade, those ultra-Orthodox news sources that bothered to report the violence at all referred to the “toeiva” or abomination parade. Toeiva, the…

  By Rachel Delia Benaim Aug 3, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why We Should Ignore the Nuts on Both Sides of Iran Deal Debate

  Insiders say that mainstream American Jewish organizations are coalescing around opposition to the P5+1 Iran nuclear deal and will work hard to get 13 Democratic senators to give Republicans a veto-proof majority to reject it. Ultimately this would be a self-defeating strategy. But however one feels about the agreement, there are ways to have a…

  By Jay Michaelson Aug 3, 2015 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  I’m an Orthodox Mom and I Want City To Probe Brooklyn Yeshivas

  Faigy Mayer took her own life on July 20, . Despite its geographical proximity to her birthplace, she was light years from her roots. Faigy was born into a Hasidic family in Brooklyn and didn’t mince words about her former life in what amounted to a suicide note posthumously published soon after her death. In…

  By Bethany Mandel Aug 2, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What Gay Pride Parade Stabber Has in Common With His Victims

  I wish Yishai Schlissel, the perpetrator of the crime at Thursday’s Jerusalem gay pride parade, had paused for a moment to first speak to the marchers. If he did, he would have realized how much he had in common with them. I know Schlissel. Not personally, but I know the personality. I grew up in…

  By Ysoscher Katz Aug 2, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Jewish Terror Is Different This Time

  Israel was stunned last week by a pair of violent attacks, both apparently perpetrated by Jewish extremists, just hours apart, that seemed to suggest a country teetering on a precipice, threatened with a wave of Jewish religious violence. It may indeed be on that precipice, but not in the way it appears at first glance….

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 1, 2015 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Reclaiming My Star of David as an African-American Jew

  It’s about 3:15 in the morning and I’m awake at my laptop, poring over yet another online Judaica jewelry shop, looking at page after page of hamsa, tablet, menorah, chai, and mezuza pendants. I want something unique. Modern. Sleek. Something that screams “JEWISH” but also hasn’t been run into the ground over and over and…

  By MaNishtana Aug 1, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  I’m Here To Perform Yiddish Music — Not Cater to Your Idea of Blackness

  In case I’ve ever given you occasion to think otherwise, I’m black. My parents are black, and their parents (may they live to 120 years) are black as well, though they were not always so; they were previously “colored.” My three brothers happen to be black, as is basically mayn gantse mishpokhe, my whole family….

  By Anthony Russell Jul 31, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Did Barack Obama Hit Right Note in Call for Iran Deal Support?

  Hoping to energize activists on the left to take on the battle for approval of the diplomatic deal with Iran, President Obama is invoking the memory of the Iraq war and reminding his allies of who led the nation into it. But what many liberals hear as a powerful rallying call to avoid entering another…

  By Nathan Guttman Jul 31, 2015 | 3 min read