In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
-
Opinion
A ‘Fight of the Century’ Over ‘Pinkwashing’ and Israel
The Internet is still recovering from Mayweather vs. Pacquaio, but I’ve been fantasizing about a different “fight of the century” starring two outspoken LGBT agitators: Lucas versus Spade. I’ve just read two extreme position statements on Israel/Palestine, both from within the LGBT community. One, from the right, was directed at me in an op-ed by…
-
Opinion Getting Jewish Students Out of Comfort Zone Isn’t ‘Anti-Semitic’
You can learn a lot from students if you stop telling them what you think they ought to know, and let them tell you what they know already. Jeff Salkin’s recent op-ed, however, encourages a kind of Jewish education that would fill students with “the Jewish narrative” (as if there’s only one) that they could…
-
Opinion Brassy Jewish Woman 2.0: Pamela From ‘Louie’
The brassy Jewish woman — let’s call her the BJW — has long been a standard character on both stage and screen. Going all the way back to the likes of Molly Picon, the BJW has been played by such comic greats as Joan Rivers, Fran Drescher, Susie Essman, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand and, most…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
Opinion Reclaiming Ashkenazi Culture? Sure. But Not Without Some Tough Love
So, has received a lot of discussion over the past few weeks on certain sectors of the Jewish blogosphere – far more than I expected. Much of this discussion has revolved around the fact that certain aspects of Ashkenazi culture themselves have largely been erased from the “mainstream” – be it Yiddish, certain foods, certain…
-
Opinion If You Defend Charlie Hebdo — Do Same for Pamela Geller
Ever since the terrorist massacre at Charlie Hebdo magazine last January, it’s been getting harder and harder to decide exactly who the bad guys are and what we’re fighting about. At first it seemed obvious. A pair of gunmen, evidently French Muslims with links to Al Qaeda in Yemen, burst into the Paris offices of…
-
Opinion Check Our Privilege by Reconnecting With Real Ashkenazi Culture
I’ve been following the growing buzz — generally and in the Forward specifically — around Jewishness, white privilege, and “Ashkenormativity.” As a Yiddishist with an anti-racist agenda, I have a vested interest in understanding Ashkenazi identity in a way that yields a Jewish community that is both inclusive and capable of working across identity boundaries…
-
Opinion Did Israel Prepare Coach David Blatt To Handle ‘King’ LeBron James?
Many of the logos belonging to the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team feature a sword: in one case a flag with a ‘C’ on it flies from the sword, and in two others the sword slides through the Cleveland ‘C’ as if into a scabbard. But the warlike images could go the other way. The sword…
-
Opinion Why Americans Are Fleeing Organized Religion — and What It Means for Jews
I recently attended a wedding where the bride and groom shared Chinese, American and Eastern European roots. Their parents were raised Catholic, Lutheran and Jewish. But the wedding itself, both ceremony and reception, were completely, utterly, 100% secular. God was not invited; no religious ritual made an appearance. Welcome to the new America. I thought…
-
Opinion 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…
-
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…
-
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…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Expelled Oberlin Chabad rabbi says he ‘made a mistake’ with explicit social media chats
- 2
Culture Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary on the manosphere takes a detour into antisemitism
- 3
Fast Forward Illinois primary pits Jewish candidate with deep Israel ties against AIPAC spending
- 4
News Joe Kent, Trump official with white supremacist ties, resigns over Iran war and blames Israel
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Romania’s secret police trailed a Jewish photographer. Decades later, their files have become a film.
-
Fast Forward Avraham Burg, longtime fixture of Israeli left, meets Tucker Carlson on his own turf
-
Fast Forward King Charles named patron of British Jewish security nonprofit following ambulance attack
-
Fast Forward After decades, Iran-linked Manhattan skyscraper yields $318M for terror victims
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
