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
How Naomi Shemer’s ‘Jerusalem of Gold’ Actually Hurts Israel
The songs we sing to ourselves play an outsized role in shaping how we see our culture. So it is distinctly uncomfortable to consider the possibility that a beloved anthem either explicitly or implicitly promotes a toxic idea. Naomi Shemer’s “Jerusalem of Gold” is among the most beloved modern Hebrew songs. No other song so…
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Opinion What If Football’s Opening Weekend Acknowledged Rosh Hashanah?
Much has been made of the start date of the 2015 NFL season, which falls on Erev Rosh Hashanah. But the truth is that football always starts around the Jewish New Year in September. What if Jewish football fans pushed to integrate Rosh Hashanah into the opening game broadcasts? After all, football has been played…
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Opinion How American Jews Can Fight the Academic Intifada
As the New York Times reported this weekend, Israel is under attack. Except, this time, the tools of attack are not military. They are not rockets fired on Sderot from Gaza, or Hezbollah-sponsored salvos from Lebanon. The attacks are not even located in Israel itself. They are attacks on the very idea of Israel, and…
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Opinion So What If You’re a Nice Jewish Boy? That’s Not Enough!
After years of futile resistance, I’m finally becoming a Jewish professional: I’m a rabbinical student, I write for the Jewish press, and I do academic-type stuff with Yiddish. And by and large, I’m very happy with my experiences in Jewish organizations. But now that I’m getting farther along, I’m starting to understand how power functions…
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Opinion Sympathy for the Nazi?
From two very different places — a courtroom in the northern German city of Lunenberg and the pages of a best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — comes a vexing question that has special relevance for contemporary Jews: Is there ever a time when we should sympathize with a Nazi? In Germany, Oskar Groening is being tried…
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Opinion It’s Not About Leaving France — Our Question Is How To Stay
“Is there a future for Jews in France?” I might just as well have poured a Dr Pepper into the wine glass of Nicolas Weill. The cultural and literary journalist for Le Monde looked at me from across our corner table in a small restaurant specializing in provincial fare. “This sort of question is an…
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Opinion My Message to the Man Who Attacked Me at the Kotel
On a sunny morning last month, I was swept into the women’s section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem in a flurry of aggression directed at the Women of the Wall, the Israeli group fighting for women’s prayer at Jerusalem’s holiest site. (JTA) One of the group’s male supporters, Charlie Kalech, was strangled and thrown…
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Opinion Dancing on George Galloway’s Grave
Between the prospect of the break-up of the United Kingdom and five more years of Conservative-led austerity, there wasn’t much good news in the British election results. Except, that is, in Bradford. After an ugly campaign, the infamous and indefatigable George Galloway, who made headlines for declaring the down-on-its-luck northern town an “Israel-free zone,” lost…
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Opinion My Jewish Nose Got Me Pulled Over — White Privilege Got Me Off
One morning in early 1982, I was driving up Route 1 toward Newark Airport, borderline late for my flight. As I wove through morning traffic, calculating how fast I could go without risking a ticket, I suddenly saw the whirling red cap of a police car in my rearview mirror. I pulled over and waited…
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Opinion Swipe Right If Israeli-Palestinian Peace Turns You On
Are you in the mood to make love, not war? Then swipe right — right across the Green Line! Verona, a new Tinder-like dating app specially designed for Israelis and Palestinians, sounds like a joke. But for 1000 users and counting, it’s become a real way to find a hot hook-up and solve the Middle East…
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Opinion Bibi’s Nightmare: Unruly Coalition Might Fall — or Worse, Survive
Right now, after finishing seven weeks of infuriating, hairpin coalition negotiations, Benjamin Netanyahu must be wondering what would be a worse fate for the impossibly shaky and extremist government he’s assembled: that it collapses the moment some disgruntled back-bencher decides to walk out — or that it survives and leads Israel into as-yet unimagined recesses…
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