Opinion

• Opinion

  Inside Israel’s Secret Talks With Hamas

  One of the most intriguing news stories out of Jerusalem currently involves the new director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, longtime Netanyahu adviser Dore Gold. Addressing a June 1 media briefing at the think-tank he heads, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Gold let on that Hamas is “not a candidate to become a political partner.”…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Don’t Blame the Sauna Rabbi — Blame Orthodox Mentality

  Sometimes a trailblazer attempts to level criticism at someone or something within the Orthodox Jewish community. That hero is too often scorned. “He has an agenda.” (Of course he does! His agenda is to make Orthodox Judaism better!) “Who is she to criticize?!” (A very brave person!) “But there’s so much good in the community!…

  By Eliyahu Fink Jun 4, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel’s Precarious Gender Balance

  Women harassed when they refuse to go to the back of a public bus. Women forced to sit in segregated areas at public health clinics and at burials in cemeteries. Women berated for wearing clothes deemed to be immodest. Women’s voices banned from a radio station. Women excluded from participating in municipal programs and state…

  Jun 4, 2015 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• Dan Perry Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Would Maimonides Call Her Caitlyn or Bruce?

  Since Vanity Fair released the “Call Me Caitlyn” cover on Monday, you’ve probably seen a flurry of comments about it on social media: some full of “YAAAS GIRL” positivity, and others spouting some variation on “This is still a man named Bruce Jenner and there’s not a feminization surgery or Annie Leibovitz photoshoot in the…

  By Sigal Samuel Jun 3, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Actually, Dr. Ruth, the Talmud Does Not OK Rape

  On Monday, Dr. Ruth Westheimer appeared on the “Diane Rehm Show” and made what have already become widely circulated remarks suggesting that, once a couple is naked and in bed together, consent is considered already granted and irrevocable: “I am very worried about college campuses saying that a woman and a man… can be in…

  By Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg Jun 3, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Jewish Fundamentalism Is More Brazen Than Ever — and Not Just on the Plane

  There’s a Hasidic man arguing with the gate agent at the Phoenix airport. He’s claiming that he can’t be seated next to a woman because of his religion – even though Hasidic men have sat next to women on airplanes and buses and in shared taxis for decades, until they gained enough political power in…

  By Jay Michaelson Jun 3, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Great Hypocrisy Behind Sheldon Adelson’s Anti-BDS Summit

  Supporters of Israel oppose the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel (BDS) on the basis that many of the movement’s adherents support the one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — in other words, they call for a single, democratic state in the land now under Israel’s control, which would mean the end of…

  By Ali Gharib Jun 2, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  An Immoral Use of Jewish Power in Upstate New York

  New York State’s legislative session is in full swing, and thousands of Jews from across denominational lines are expressing their support for two bills that, on the face of it, don’t seem to have anything to do with typical Jewish issues like Israel or liberal social causes. But these bills — A.5355 and S.3821, as…

  By Ari Hart Jun 2, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Don’t Gloss Over Muslim Role in Iraqi Pogrom

  In her for the Forward, Shayna Zamkanei correctly asserted that American (and European) Jews are largely unaware of the Farhud, the Baghdad anti Jewish pogrom of 1-2 June, 1941. The flourishing Babylonian Community which existed for 24 centuries is also largely unknown in the West. Jews felt very much at home in Iraq and considered…

  By Shulamit Binah Jun 1, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Introducing the Frumqa — Jewish Women Under the Burqa

  No, this isn’t a dementor, or a modern art installation. This isn’t even, as you are more likely to expect, a Muslim woman wearing a burqa. It was on a sweltering hot day, of 80 degree weather, that photographer Yakov Lederman saw this sight in Beit Shemesh — a Jewish woman and her two daughters, a…

  By Lior Zaltzman Jun 1, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  How Much Yiddish Do You Know? Hopefully More Than Buzzfeed.

  Imagine if a quiz on a popular website asked “How Much Spanish Do You Know?” and then proceeded to provide its readers with a list of words alternating between misspelled Spanish curses, some real words that weren’t actually Spanish and pure gibberish. It’s hard to imagine such a quiz being published outside of the realm…

  By Jordan Kutzik Jun 1, 2015 | 3 min read