Opinion

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  Pope Francis Takes On Climate Change — But Who’s Listening?

  It’s funny how life keeps handing us surprises. Just now, for example, Pope Francis has launched a global campaign to combat climate change, and it’s meeting fierce resistance from Catholic conservatives. Who saw that coming? I thought I’d heard — from conservatives, if memory serves — that it’s liberals who habitually sin by substituting their…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Could Sheldon Adelson Empire Be Toppled by Lawsuit?

  Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino billionaire and prodigious conservative donor, spent last week testifying in a court hearing that could determine the future of his empire. Adelson’s testimony was part of a pre-trial hearing in a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed against his Las Vegas Sands Corp. by a former CEO of his lucrative operations in…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 12, 2015 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  10 Things About Jews in New Pew Study

  The Pew Research Center’s newly released 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study offers a trove of data on American Jews based on interviews with 35,071 American adults, 847 of whom identified their faith as Jewish. Here are some of the more interesting findings about the Jews. We’re highly educated! There are more American Jews with two…

  By Uriel Heilman (JTA) May 12, 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 The left is turning on AOC over Israel — and imperiling its own agenda

  

• 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

  

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  Opinion

  How Naomi Shemer’s ‘Jerusalem of Gold’ Actually Hurts Israel

  The songs we sing to ourselves play an outsized role in shaping how we see our culture. So it is distinctly uncomfortable to consider the possibility that a beloved anthem either explicitly or implicitly promotes a toxic idea. Naomi Shemer’s “Jerusalem of Gold” is among the most beloved modern Hebrew songs. No other song so…

  By Ori Weisberg May 11, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  What If Football’s Opening Weekend Acknowledged Rosh Hashanah?

  Much has been made of the start date of the 2015 NFL season, which falls on Erev Rosh Hashanah. But the truth is that football always starts around the Jewish New Year in September. What if Jewish football fans pushed to integrate Rosh Hashanah into the opening game broadcasts? After all, football has been played…

  By Gabe Friedman (JTA) May 11, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  How American Jews Can Fight the Academic Intifada

  As the New York Times reported this weekend, Israel is under attack. Except, this time, the tools of attack are not military. They are not rockets fired on Sderot from Gaza, or Hezbollah-sponsored salvos from Lebanon. The attacks are not even located in Israel itself. They are attacks on the very idea of Israel, and…

  By Jeffrey K. Salkin May 11, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  So What If You’re a Nice Jewish Boy? That’s Not Enough!

  After years of futile resistance, I’m finally becoming a Jewish professional: I’m a rabbinical student, I write for the Jewish press, and I do academic-type stuff with Yiddish. And by and large, I’m very happy with my experiences in Jewish organizations. But now that I’m getting farther along, I’m starting to understand how power functions…

  By Ri J. Turner May 11, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Sympathy for the Nazi?

  From two very different places — a courtroom in the northern German city of Lunenberg and the pages of a best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — comes a vexing question that has special relevance for contemporary Jews: Is there ever a time when we should sympathize with a Nazi? In Germany, Oskar Groening is being tried…

  May 11, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  It’s Not About Leaving France — Our Question Is How To Stay

  “Is there a future for Jews in France?” I might just as well have poured a Dr Pepper into the wine glass of Nicolas Weill. The cultural and literary journalist for Le Monde looked at me from across our corner table in a small restaurant specializing in provincial fare. “This sort of question is an…

  By Robert Zaretsky May 11, 2015 | 18 min read
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  Opinion

  My Message to the Man Who Attacked Me at the Kotel

  On a sunny morning last month, I was swept into the women’s section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem in a flurry of aggression directed at the Women of the Wall, the Israeli group fighting for women’s prayer at Jerusalem’s holiest site. (JTA) One of the group’s male supporters, Charlie Kalech, was strangled and thrown…

  By Alden Solovy May 10, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Dancing on George Galloway’s Grave

  Between the prospect of the break-up of the United Kingdom and five more years of Conservative-led austerity, there wasn’t much good news in the British election results. Except, that is, in Bradford. After an ugly campaign, the infamous and indefatigable George Galloway, who made headlines for declaring the down-on-its-luck northern town an “Israel-free zone,” lost…

  By Liam Hoare May 8, 2015 | 3 min read