Opinion

• Opinion

  Only Writers Living in Israel Deserve To Win Its Biggest Prize

  When I heard that an Israeli author living abroad — Ruby Namdar — had received the prestigious Sapir Prize for Hebrew literature this year, my first thought was “How dare we?” Of course, my gut reaction of including myself in this group was preposterous, because I write in English and cannot claim membership in this…

  By Talia Carner

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Best Way To Move the Orthodox World

  The Orthodox rabbinate will come around to approving same-sex marriage and equal status for women in Halacha, Jewish law. Provided. Provided that the momentum for such equality in the wider society builds to the point where discrimination is so repugnant that the Orthodox rabbinate feels morally compromised. So if you want Orthodoxy to alter its…

  By Yitzchak Francus Jun 8, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Godology: Searching for the Divine in the Torah’s Scroll

  Godology is a monthly conversation between Forward columnist Elissa Strauss and Rabbi Scott Perlo in which they explore what it means to be “Godish” — to kind of, sort of, believe in God. ELISSA: Scott, we recently celebrated the holiday of Shavuot, when we honor the day God gave the Israelites the Torah at Mount…

  By Elissa Strauss and Scott Perlo Jun 7, 2015 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman A gunman attacked a Michigan synagogue. Here’s what happens to the community next

  

• Dan Perry Is this Netanyahu’s Winston Churchill moment?

  

• Emily Tamkin We must rewrite the rulebook for fighting antisemitism — or conspiracists like Joe Kent will win the narrative wars

  

• Jay Michaelson Antisemitism is exploding on the right but the Jewish establishment is focused on the left

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Rabbis Against Climate Change

  Three months ago, authoritative sources at the Vatican started saying that in June, Pope Francis would be issuing one of Catholicism’s most important statements — an Encyclical — on the climate crisis, and that in September, during his trip to the United States, he would speak to the United Nations General Assembly and to the…

  By Arthur Waskow Jun 6, 2015 | 3 min read
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  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 Jun 5, 2015 | 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
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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