Opinion

• Opinion

  No, It’s Not a ‘Feminist Catfight’ Over Hillary Clinton

  “I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.” Rebecca West in 1912. It’s 2015, and we still can’t agree on what the F-word really means. In a recent…

  By Anne Cohen

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Israel’s Reaction to the Hamas Prisoner Has Everything to Do With Race

  Did race have anything to do with the way the Israeli government dealt with the kidnapping of Ethiopian-Israeli citizen Avraham Mengitsu? That question has been reverberating through Israeli social media, but the answer doesn’t seem to be as clear cut. Two days ago, Israel de-classified information pertaining to the kidnapping of two Israeli citizens. One…

  By Lior Zaltzman Jul 10, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Connecting the Dots Between Greek Crisis, Argentina — and the ‘Shylock’ Canard

  If you’re like me, you’ve probably been trying for weeks to figure out what the heck that Greek euro crisis is all about. And every time you thought you were getting close, they went and changed the script on you. Personally, I thought I had it sorted out after Greece’s July 5 referendum on the…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 10, 2015 | 7 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 Israeli leaders are using Holocaust comparisons to justify attacks on Iran. Is that kosher?

  

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  Opinion

  How Donna Karan Dressed Us for the Post-Women’s Lib World

  You see, once in a while a designer comes along who not only manages to reimagine how a woman dresses, but how a woman feels. Donna Karan was one of these designers. When she launched her line back in back in 1985 her collection consisted of “seven easy pieces,” designed to be interchangeable and simple…

  By Elissa Strauss Jul 10, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Who Can Be a Jew?

  The shocking revelations last fall that a respected Orthodox rabbi spied on and exploited women studying for conversion led to two concrete outcomes: The rabbi, Barry Freundel, is serving more than six years in prison, and the Orthodox rabbinical group that should have stopped his shameful behavior is trying to reform itself. In a report…

  By Jane Eisner Jul 9, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How Bernie Sanders Is Using Bread-and-Butter Pitch To Win Over Democrats

  During the six years that Democrats controlled the Senate between 2007 and 2013, the range of Democratic opinion could fairly be described as the distance between two white-haired Jewish gentlemen from New England, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, neither one a Democrat. Both were elected as Independents in 2006 but caucused…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 8, 2015 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Why I Said Kaddish for Churchgoers in Charleston

  (JTA) — My father died a few weeks ago. The hardest part of the shiva was when it ended. Friends and family were, by and large, no longer visiting. I was alone in pain and agony. I thought of this reality during my visit to the Emanuel AME Church in this city merely two weeks…

  By Avi Weiss Jul 7, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  4 Reasons Why Sheldon Adelson Anti-BDS Campaign Will Backfire

  And so, the great irony of Israel continues: Those who hold themselves out as Israel’s staunchest defenders are often, in fact, its worst enemies. Case in point, the Adelson/Saban donors’ conference, rumored to have raised $50 million for on-campus Israel advocacy, in a campaign they have ridiculously dubbed the “Campus Maccabees.” Unfortunately, the Campus Maccabees…

  By Jay Michaelson Jul 6, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  We All Agree Nazi Flag Is Wrong. So What About Confederate Flag?

  On the heels of the Confederate flag controversy in South Carolina, another dispute over a flag is raging in North Carolina. Kings Mountain resident John Brown has been flying a Nazi flag from his front porch. But, under pressure from his community, he has agreed to take it down in a couple of days, For…

  By Rachel X. Landes Jul 6, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  We’ve Heard Enough Rabbis on Gay Marriage. Now, We Need a Rebbe.

  The Orthodox conversation over the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision reminds me why I am Modern Chassidish and not Modern Orthodox. There are many differences between these two streams, but the defining distinction is this: their views differ greatly over the role of Halacha (Jewish law) in religious life. The Modern Orthodox Jew experiences the…

  By Ysoscher Katz Jul 6, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Let’s Unite To Make Marriage Stronger for All — Gay and Straight

  In the stirring words of his groundbreaking decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy not only affirmed the value of marriage between those of the same sex. He also wrote into the law journals and history books a rigorous, passionate argument for marriage, period. “No union is more profound than marriage,…

  By Jane Eisner Jul 6, 2015 | 4 min read