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
What Jimmy and Tim Taught Me About Catholics and Jews Getting Along
Several months before the Second Vatican Council adopted its landmark document, Nostra Aetate, my family moved about a half-mile across our New Jersey hometown. That minor distance spanned the dividing line between the attendance zones for two elementary schools, meaning that at age 10 I was abruptly separated from my childhood friends. Though I went…
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Opinion ‘Difficult People’ Proves It’s Still the Golden Age of Jews Mocking Jews
When “Curb Your Enthusiasm” began its indefinite hiatus four years ago, it seemed like the end. The end (perhaps temporarily) of one of my favorite shows, and then end of a golden age of Jewish comedy. Yes, there would continue to be Jews in comedy, but the phenomenon of the Jews using Jews as fodder…
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Opinion Why Does Everybody Sound So Anti-Semitic All of a Sudden?
You don’t have to be paranoid to sense a new strain of anti-Semitism surfacing in American politics of late. Paranoia helps, but it’s not required. We sense anti-Semitism when a media personality of Ann Coulter’s stature tweets about “f—king Jews” looming too large in Republican thinking. When The New York Times runs lists of Congress…
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Opinion Who’s Afraid of Jeremy Corbyn? No, Not All British Jews.
As a British Jew who supports Jeremy Corbyn, I was a little surprised to read Liam Hoare’s piece “.” It is disorientating to hear a group of which you are a member described as being univocal, particularly when the description fails to match your lived experience. Hoare’s tendency to present the British Jewish community to…
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Opinion The More Polite Brand of Greek Anti-Semitism
As Greeks voted on Sunday in their third election this year, my wife and I hiked up the stunningly beautiful Mount Hymettus. When we reached the top, we were rewarded with a panoramic view of Athens. But we also found a large red swastika, painted alongside other graffiti. Later that evening, we learned that the…
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Letters Vatican Must Open World War II and Baptism Records
As Marshall Breger and Jack Bemporad point out in September 22, 2015, the Vatican has come a long way in healing the wounds it has inflicted on Jews and Judaism. But perhaps Jews haven’t responded because there is a great deal more to be done if the Vatican really wants to establish its bona fides:…
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Opinion Why Haven’t Jews Responded to Vatican II After 50 Years?
The arrival of Pope Francis in America and the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s landmark declaration, Nostra Aetate, have allowed us, as Jews, to marvel at the revolutionary developments in our relations with the Catholic Church in the past half-century. But while the church has taken great strides in re-examining the way it…
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Opinion Why This Hasid Was Right To Flip the Bird to Kapparot Protester
As Forward readers know, I have, on several occasions, criticized ultra-Orthodox/fundamentalist Jewish leaders for abuses of power, toleration of bigotry, failures to protect or educate their own communities, and selective manipulation of secular law to arrogate power to themselves and squelch the rights of others. So, when a photo circulated this week of a Hasidic…
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Opinion What a Catholic Mom Wants the Pope To Learn from Her Rabbi Daughter
Pope Francis is the darling of many liberal Catholics and the world expects he will make life easier for congregants who have not been following the letter of Church law for some time. But when the pontiff comes to Philadelphia on September 26 and 27 for the World Meeting of Families, with an enormous entourage…
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Opinion As Pope Francis Approaches, Look How Far Jewish-Catholic Relations Have Come
Dozens of medieval churches across Europe are adorned with figures of Ecclesia and Synagoga, representations of the Church and the Jews that depict a triumphant Church and a vanquished Jewish people. At the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, they can be found on either side of the main entrance. While the details differ from…
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Opinion Think France’s Jews and Muslims Are Natural Enemies? Think Again.
It was late at night in central Paris. A group of Jews were enjoying themselves in their popular meeting spot, the Gamin de Paris, a café in the longtime Jewish quarter of the Marais. At about 11 PM, between 50 and 100 thugs, many of them Muslims, showed up to make trouble. Carrying Billy clubs,…
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