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
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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…
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Opinion An Immoral Use of Jewish Power in Upstate New York
New York State’s legislative session is in full swing, and thousands of Jews from across denominational lines are expressing their support for two bills that, on the face of it, don’t seem to have anything to do with typical Jewish issues like Israel or liberal social causes. But these bills — A.5355 and S.3821, as…
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Opinion Don’t Gloss Over Muslim Role in Iraqi Pogrom
In her for the Forward, Shayna Zamkanei correctly asserted that American (and European) Jews are largely unaware of the Farhud, the Baghdad anti Jewish pogrom of 1-2 June, 1941. The flourishing Babylonian Community which existed for 24 centuries is also largely unknown in the West. Jews felt very much at home in Iraq and considered…
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Opinion Introducing the Frumqa — Jewish Women Under the Burqa
No, this isn’t a dementor, or a modern art installation. This isn’t even, as you are more likely to expect, a Muslim woman wearing a burqa. It was on a sweltering hot day, of 80 degree weather, that photographer Yakov Lederman saw this sight in Beit Shemesh — a Jewish woman and her two daughters, a…
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Opinion How Much Yiddish Do You Know? Hopefully More Than Buzzfeed.
Imagine if a quiz on a popular website asked “How Much Spanish Do You Know?” and then proceeded to provide its readers with a list of words alternating between misspelled Spanish curses, some real words that weren’t actually Spanish and pure gibberish. It’s hard to imagine such a quiz being published outside of the realm…
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Opinion So Apparently, My Name Means ‘Chickenshit’ in Hebrew
I was signing the lease to my new apartment in Israel when my landlord asked to see my passport. He looked down at my work visa, which was pasted on a page inside, and then looked back up at me. “Oh,” he said. “This is a very bad name in Israel.” My last name, Zeveloff,…
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Opinion Loving Israel, Hating How It’s Treating Ethiopians
Much has been written and said about the social and economic disparities between Ethiopian Israelis and the general Israeli population. The numbers are nothing short of shocking. For example, 40% of Ethiopian men serving in the Israel Defense Forces have spent time in military jails, an incarceration rate 760% higher than their proportion in the…
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Opinion Who Gets To March in New York’s Celebrate Israel Parade?
The organizers of New York’s Celebrate Israel parade say that it’s the largest gathering of its type on the planet. It attracts leading politicians like the Kiddush table attracts hungry Jews after Sabbath services. It commandeers famed Fifth Avenue for a mile, and the spillover events make Central Park feel as if it’s a synagogue…
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Opinion Hebrew School Ambivalent
“Do we have to go to Hebrew school today?” my middle son whines, snorting and stomping about. “I hate it!” I take a deep breath and try not to roll my eyes, but I fail. It’s an old fight. One I’m tired of. I think back a few days, calculating. Did they go Sunday? My…
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Opinion Memories of an Iraqi Pogrom and What It Means Today
Besides indulging in dairy and abstaining from sleep, Shavuot signifies the offering of the first fruits in the Land of Israel, the receiving of the Torah and the story of Ruth the Moabite. For Iraqi Jews, however, Shavuot also represents a time of personal commemoration of the Farhud, the “violent dispossession” that rocked the ancient…
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Opinion The 95% Doctrine of Climate Change
In November 2001, faced with unconfirmed reports that Pakistani scientists might be helping Al Qaeda get a nuclear weapon, Vice President Dick Cheney articulated what became known as the Cheney Doctrine: If there’s even a 1% chance that the unimaginable might happen, it must be treated as a certainty and acted on accordingly. “It’s not…
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Antisemitism Decoded The antisemites are enjoying themselves
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Opinion American Jews have a Hasan Piker problem. Solving it is going to hurt
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Fast Forward UCLA student government condemns campus Hillel for hosting former hostage
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Sports Today’s American Jews finally have their era’s Sandy Koufax
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Fast Forward California Jewish groups decry antisemitic conspiracy theories printed in governor’s race voter guide
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Fast Forward Matan Koch, disability advocate who urged Jewish communities to ‘let everyone in,’ dies at 44
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Fast Forward Assault outside synagogue and rock thrown through Judaica shop window ratchet up Toronto Jews’ concerns
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Fast Forward Trump administration to deny green cards to applicants with record of anti-Israel speech