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
Why Bernie Sanders Needs a Come-to-Jesus Moment
In casting the first official ballots of the 2016 presidential race, Iowa’s caucus voters delivered more questions than they did answers. Chief among them: Who really won the Democratic contest — Hillary Clinton, leading by a fraction of a percentage point, or Bernie Sanders, fighting her to a virtual tie? One historic milestone can be…
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Opinion Does Anyone Really Benefit from ‘Balkanizing’ the Kotel?
Many are celebrating the official setting aside and expansion of a part of Jerusalem’s Western Wall for non-traditional public prayer. I’m not among them. Over nearly 50 years, the Kotel has been the only place in the world where Jews of all sorts — black-hatted and hair-covered Haredim, National-Religious, Reform and Conservative and agnostic —…
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Opinion How Marco Rubio’s Words Resonate With My Jewish Family
There are a lot of ways to be an American, but for a long time it seemed there was only one way to be an American running for the Republican nomination for the presidency: Have deep roots in America and a storied American family. John McCain’s father and grandfather were both four-star admirals in the…
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Opinion How We’re Failing Jews with Disabilities
For the past several years, February has been Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month, prompting Jewish communal groups to issue statements, hold events and publish blog posts on the topic of more fully welcoming people with disabilities into our community. The month is often a celebration of intent rather than action. In many parts of…
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Opinion Why New Kotel Plan Deserves a Cautious Hallelujah
The new plan to create a larger, official egalitarian space at the Western Wall is a compromise of a compromise. In all the celebration, we can’t lose sight of that. Those who believe in promoting and protecting pluralistic Judaism in Israel have every right to proclaim victory — a rare emotion after years of increasingly…
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Opinion Turning the Kotel Into a Haredi Synagogue Is Bad for Men, Too
Reading the substance of the new Western Wall deal, described in a news report posted by the Forward as a is heartbreaking. As Shulamit Magnus rightly argues in the Jerusalem Post, the Kotel is not now, nor has it ever been, a synagogue. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz is not the Wall’s mara de’atra (“master of the…
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Opinion Is This Painting Anti-Israel, Anti-Semitic, Both or Neither?
Middle East passions are being enflamed again on university campuses, with York University in Toronto as the latest cauldron. In response to a painting hanging in the student union building, Canadian film mogul Paul Bronfman is pulling his company’s support (reportedly totaling “thousands of dollars” of film equipment and training seminars) from the university. In…
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Opinion The Oscars Are Too White — and That’s a Jewish Problem
“The Jews control Hollywood.” It’s one of those anti-Semitic tropes that, we all know, contains a certain grain of truth. “Control,” no — not with that ominous, conspiratorial connotation. But “helped create”? “Disproportionately populate?” Sure. From the founding of California’s motion picture industry (well documented in books like Neal Gabler’s “An Empire of Their Own:…
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Opinion Why the Kotel Compromise Just Isn’t Good Enough
When I woke to the news about the new policy for the Kotel, I was surprised to see so many of my friends celebrating. I suppose I should be, too: I’ve been wearing tefillin since I was bat mitzvahed over a decade ago. In that time, I have been to Israel twice, first with my…
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Opinion Should a Liberal Jewish Feminist Vote for Hillary — or Bernie?
If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, she will be the first-ever female presidential candidate from a majority political party in United States history. If Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic nomination, he will be the first-ever Jewish presidential candidate from a major political party. What’s a liberal Jewish feminist voter to do? The question of…
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Opinion Could Michael Bloomberg Elbow Out Bernie Sanders To Become First Jewish President?
Just when you thought the 2016 presidential race couldn’t get any weirder, it got weirder. On January 23, associates of New York’s billionaire ex-mayor Michael Bloomberg let it be known that he’s exploring a possible third-party White House bid. This isn’t Bloomberg’s first presidential exploration. It’s his third. His indecision could earn him the label…
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Sports Today’s American Jews finally have their era’s Sandy Koufax
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Fast Forward Netanyahu reveals prostate cancer treatment, says he hid diagnosis during Iran war