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
Clock Ticking on Benjamin Netanyahu’s Coalition Drive
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is racing against the clock to assemble a new governing coalition before his statutory deadline runs out on Wednesday and he’s forced to return his mandate to Israel’s figurehead president. By all reports, it’s going to be a cliffhanger. Of the five smaller parties he wants to recruit, two have…
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Opinion Stop Comparing the Tel Aviv Protests to Baltimore
The comparison is irresistible. In Tel Aviv — just like in Baltimore and Ferguson — thousands of black citizens took to the streets to protest racism and police brutality. And in Tel Aviv — just like in Baltimore and Ferguson — the urban streets became akin to a war zone, with water cannons and stun…
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Opinion Are You Really Stunned That Ethiopian Anger Has Reached Tel Aviv?
“I was in the army four years ago, and when I was released, my wife and I went to rent an apartment — and we were told they don’t want Ethiopians,” said one young protestor to a newscast on Sunday night. He was standing in a crowd of mostly Ethiopian Jewish protesters in Tel Aviv’s…
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Opinion Pamela Geller is Not Charlie
In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, some people taking up the cause of the publication would, before the massacre, have been its ideal prime targets — like Marine Le Pen, or, in this case, Pamela Geller and the American Freedom Defense Initiative. AFDI held a “Draw the Prophet” Cartoon Contest in the Curtis…
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Opinion Penn Hillel Is Not Your Battlefield — It’s Our Home
Walking into Penn Hillel, we feel inspired to participate in causes we care about and to engage in dialogue across a broad range of beliefs. Our Hillel has that effect. It creates limitless engagement opportunities for all Jewish students. The three of us are all vocal participants in dialogue around gender equality, social justice, racial…
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Opinion A Split in Hamas That Might Bring Calm, But No Peace
While Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense philosophy continues to prompt grumbling among his generals and spymasters, it turns out that the Israeli prime minister isn’t the only political leader in the neighborhood who’s at odds with his military echelon. New intelligence reports indicate that the military and political wings of Hamas are feuding over relations with Iran…
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Opinion Our Free Speech Moment
The Jewish community, here and in Israel, is having a First Amendment moment, struggling with what is acceptable speech and who are acceptable speakers. It’s not quite as bad as 1656, when the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza was expelled from his community because of his then-radical views. But communal and governmental mechanisms are at work…
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Opinion How David Cameron Plans To Channel Bibi and Win Britain’s Election
If it emerges that a secretive campaign adviser to Britain’s Conservative Party spent a few weeks in Israel in February and March, no one will be very surprised. Whether or not such a person exists, one thing is very clear on the eve of next week’s U.K. parliamentary election: the successful reelection strategy used a…
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Opinion How Pentagon Plans To Whitewash 50th Anniversary of Vietnam
Like apparitions from a forgotten past, Vietnam War-era helicopters swooped down from the sky above Newnan, Georgia, 40 miles from Atlanta last month. The vintage choppers landed at the local high school stadium, where pilots told students about the war in Southeast Asia, which took place before many of the teenagers’ parents and teachers were…
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Opinion More Is Better When It Comes to Jewish Numbers
When it comes to the Jewish community, does size really matter? It’s not a flip question. Many observers greet the high rates of intermarriage, low birthrates and widespread alienation from Jewish engagement among the non-Orthodox with little more than a shrug. These Jewish populations might be numerically challenged, the argument goes, but so what? Quantity…
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Opinion Why Israel’s Alliance With Azerbaijan Is So Shortsighted
Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, took two steps forward when he met with Israeli Armenian leaders on April 24 but one step back when he failed to characterize the 1915 massacre of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks for what it was — genocide. As many Jewish scholars have pointed out, this…
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקערין וויווי לאַקס באַשרײַבט געשיכטע פֿון לאָנדאָנער ייִדישער פּרעסעVIDEO: Historian Vivi Laks tells history of the London Yiddish Press
שבֿע צוקער פֿירט דעם שמועס מיט וויווי לאַקס און ביידע לייענען פֿאָר עטלעכע פֿעליעטאָנען פֿון יענע צײַטן.
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