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
Confronting Jewish Complicity in South African Apartheid
Freedom Day, the anniversary of the end of apartheid and South Africa’s first democratic elections, is on April 27. For many of us in the South African diaspora, myself included, it’s an important day of remembering the struggle, past and present, for a better and freer South Africa. Many American Jews join in the celebration,…
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Opinion Yes, I’m From Austria. And I’m Jewish. Next Question.
When we first met we had many conversations like this one. “Help me place your accent,” you say. “I’m from Austria,” I answer. “Oh,” you reply, “My grandmother is from there. She left on a Kindertransport.” And then you add, “Vienna is supposed to be beautiful.” I notice some discomfort. I wonder if you’re wondering…
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Opinion Our Nepal ‘Home Away From Home’ Is In Ruins — Now, We Must Rebuild
Over the past eight years, Tevel b’Tzedek has been working in Nepal, a very beautiful, very poor country snuggled—or thrust—between India and Tibet. Founded to create a Jewish platform to connect Israelis and Jews to the challenges of extreme poverty in the global south, Tevel now works in Burundi, Africa as well—but Nepal is our…
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Opinion My (Israeli) Independence Report
On the eve of Israel Independence Day last week, the blue and white balloons came cascading down from the balcony at Park Avenue Synagogue, New York City’s largest Conservative congregation. For a holiday that has enjoyed little star-billing in the annual American cycle, this “Community Celebration” organized by the Jewish National Fund was clearly a…
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Opinion Finding Your Way in the New Forward.com
However long awaited or welcome any new arrival is, human nature makes us greet it with anxiety. In his 1925 “Resistance to psychoanalysis,” Sigmund Freud points to the rituals developed by farmers to mark the coming of spring as an example of the wariness with which we greet even the most vital and life-affirming of…
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Opinion Why GOP’s ‘Sheldon Adelson Primary’ Is Disgrace — and Won’t Lure Jewish Voters
This weekend, a collection of GOP presidential candidates will arrive in Las Vegas for a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Don’t allow yourself to be fooled into thinking that these candidates are making a real attempt to appeal to American Jewish voters. Their presence is all about winning over a single Jewish donor: Sheldon…
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Opinion In Stealth Move, Congress Backs Israeli Right’s War on Settlement Boycotts
The finance committees of the House and Senate have approved amendments to a trade bill that equate boycotts of West Bank settlement products with boycotts of Israel, strengthening efforts by the Israeli right to silence opponents of West Bank settlements. Both committees approved the amendments unanimously. Each committee then approved its version of the trade…
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Opinion Why Birthright Next Was Doomed From the Start
Well, I hate to say I told you so. The news that Birthright Next is apparently winding down – its leadership is leaving, its flagship program is shutting down — has come as a surprise to many. But not to those who have followed the program closely, and watched its revolving door of talented staff…
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Opinion For Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, Faith Was Life — and Life Was Act of Faith
I remember Rav Aharon Lichtenstein often retelling the passage from the Talmud of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai’s death. The sage’s students surrounded him on his deathbed and asked for a blessing. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai’s odd response is this: May you fear God as much as you fear man. Shouldn’t we fear God much more?…
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Opinion How To Make Kidney Donors Whole
The reason that Matt Swerdloff has only one kidney is a story that goes back a couple of years, when he visited a close friend in the hospital who had just donated one of his own organs. Why did you do this, Swerdloff asked his friend. To which his friend replied: Why don’t you? “I…
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Opinion Francois Hollande Explains The Holocaust to Teenagers — Awkwardly
What started out as an unusual debate on primetime television between French president Francois Hollande and five teenagers about to vote for the first time, took an even stranger turn when they argued for several minutes whether or not it’s OK to laugh at the Holocaust. The round-table discussion took place Sunday, during the and…
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Opinion The Gaza hostage crisis could forever change how American Jews relate to Israel — but it’s not too late to fix that
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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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Yiddish World Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’
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Culture We tried to fix Hallmark’s Hanukkah problem. Here’s the movie we made instead
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