Opinion

• Opinion

  How Norwegian Muslim ‘Peace Ring’ Changed Me

  All photos by Ryan Rodrick Beiler After four years covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a photojournalist, I’m not used to covering good news. Even before my recent relocation to Norway, land of the Peace Prize and Oslo Accords, it’s been easy to be cynical about institutionalized efforts to promote coexistence. But a recent grassroots effort…

  By Ryan Rodrick Beiler

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  How Could We Have Trusted Rabbi Barry Freundel?

  Now that Rabbi Barry Freundel has pleaded guilty to peeping at 52 women while they went to the mikveh — prosecutors say he spied on 100 more women, but outside the statute of limitations — we finally can take off the qualifiers and accept that he is guilty. And that means we can begin some…

  By Jay Michaelson Feb 20, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  No, Mr. President, It Isn’t Just Extremism. It’s Jihad

  President Obama may have a fine plan in the works for combating what he calls “violent extremism,” but he doesn’t do the cause any good by tiptoeing around the problem. There are many sources of violent extremism in the world, but there’s basically just one that’s terrorizing vast sections of humanity right now, and that’s…

  By J.J. Goldberg Feb 20, 2015 | 5 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 Oh, great, Elon Musk’s antisemitic AI is about to ride shotgun in my Tesla

  

• Nora Berman First Camp Auschwitz, now Alligator Alcatraz — why the right is obsessed with commodifying brutality

  

• Dan Perry What exactly is going on between Israel and Syria — and is the prospect of peace dead?

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  It’s Time for Black Jews To Lead

  The #BlackLivesMatter movement has reverberated throughout the country, as protesters from Ferguson, Missouri, to New York have taken bold action to assert the rights, dignity and full humanity of Americans who have been systematically targeted for abusive policing: communities of color still lit by the brutal afterglow of centuries of legal discrimination and violence. The…

  By Marjorie Dove Kent Feb 20, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Let’s Get Over Our Non-Orthodox Inferiority Complex

  When I was in high school, I stopped wearing my kippah. I felt myself drifting away from the ultra-Orthodox community of my childhood and the Modern Orthodoxy my parents tried to model for me at home. I stopped wearing my kippah because I wanted to disaffiliate from the Orthodox Jews that filled New York City…

  By Amram Altzman Feb 20, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Was Muslim Graduation Banned from Hasidic Montreal?

  Officials in the Montreal borough of Outremont — which includes a sizeable Orthodox Jewish population — are defending a last-minute decision this weekend to nix a reception hosted by a Muslim organization at a city-owned community center. According to the Montreal Gazette, borough mayor Marie Cinq-Mars told reporters the event was presented as a graduation…

  By Michael Kaminer Feb 19, 2015 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Why We Need Birthright in Reverse

  Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to accept an invitation to speak before the U.S. Congress about Iran has ignited a rancorous debate within the American Jewish community. Some argue that the speech will alienate Democrats and undermine bipartisan support for Israel. Others say that a potential U.S. deal with Iran leaving the mullahs’ nuclear capacity intact…

  By Jay Ruderman Feb 19, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What’s So Wrong About Cameron Diaz’s Jewish Wedding?

  When word got out in January about non-Jewish actress Cameron Diaz and non-Jewish musician Benji Madden’s Jewish-inspired wedding, some of us found it cause for celebration; others saw it as an insult. The pair wed under a chuppah, had an officiant recite the seven blessings, smashed the glass and took a yichud. US Weekly reports…

  By Elissa Strauss Feb 19, 2015 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Don’t Lecture, Listen to Europe’s Jews

  First Paris, now Copenhagen. This annus horribilis for European Jews has become even more frightening, as the names of capital cities are now synonymous with anti-Semitic attacks creeping across the continent. We hesitate to ask, but — will the list grow? Israeli officials, aggressively led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have a ready answer to…

  Feb 19, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  7 Axioms of the Copenhagen Terror Attacks

  The news of the attacks on the Copenhagen cafe and synagogue did not surprise us. We may keep hoping this will stop, but the rational parts of our brains know that it will not, at least not for the long term. There have been enough of these attacks that we can now see there are…

  By Deborah E. Lipstadt Feb 18, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  My Night at Jerusalem’s First Public Drag Show

  Courtesy of Jerusalem Gay Student Association, photo by Leshem Brosh “Did you see the drag show?” I asked a friend at last night’s Winter Noise Festival. “Yeah,” he responded, “did you see the racist a**holes?” Last night, in the hippest corner of Jerusalem’s city center, young Jerusalemites made history. They held the city’s first-ever public…

  By Elisheva Goldberg Feb 17, 2015 | 4 min read