Opinion

• Opinion

  Starting 2015 Hungry: The Tenth of Tevet

  I don’t recommend fasting on New Year’s Day. Starvation is not the best cure for a hangover. But the Jewish calendar isn’t known for convenience, and this year, the Fast of the Tenth of Tevet — Tzom Asara B’Tevet — happened to land on January 1st. What a joyful way to ring in 2015: revisiting…

  By Abigail Pogrebin

  6 min read
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  Opinion

  Stephen Hawking’s Worst Nightmare? Golem 2.0

  The Maharal of Prague brings the Golem to life / Tumblr (JTA) — Stephen Hawking is much in the news these days. His personal story, the subject of the recently released film “The Theory of Everything,” is already spoken of as an Oscar contender. Diagnosed in 1963 with the dreaded Lou Gehrig’s disease and given two…

  By Benjamin Blech Jan 4, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Will Israel Alienate the Diaspora With ‘Jewish State’ Push?

  The several versions of the nationality bill that vied for Knesset support toward the end of November differed only in nuance. But the modest differences tapped deep fissures in Israeli political culture, leading to the collapse of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. The upcoming elections are now rapidly shaping up as a contest over Israel’s fundamental character….

  By Theodore Sasson Jan 4, 2015 | 2 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson Have we become the ‘ordinary Germans’ now?

  

• 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

  Introducing: Who Sets the Table?

  For the past six years, the Forward has published a salary survey, a look into who earns what at America’s biggest Jewish not-for-profit organizations. What we’ve discovered is not, unfortunately, surprising. Women routinely earn less than men and occupy far few leadership positions. The point of the salary survey is to focus attention on the…

  By Elissa Strauss Jan 4, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Astronaut Snaps Stunning Photos of Israel. Spot the ’67 Lines from Space!

  NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore shot a series of amazing photos of Israel from on board the International Space Station as it passed over the region on a crystal-clear Christmas morning 10 days ago. They were posted on the International Space Station’s Facebook page. They are not color-enhanced. This is what it actually looks like from…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 4, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How I Remember Mario Cuomo

  In my many years of public service, the late New York Governor Mario Cuomo stands out as a powerful figure who made his mark with both his mind and his words. A distinguished leader of the state for 12 years, Cuomo was a moving progressive thinker and a brilliant orator. His intelligent and compelling speeches…

  By Ruth Messinger Jan 2, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  The Benefits of Airing Deep Splits Among Jews

  Though the phenomenon has been in decline for some time, I think 2015 finally brings an end to the era of concerns about “airing our dirty laundry in public” on the messiest of Jewish communal issues. As Jews mirror the larger American political polarization of right and left, it is hard to imagine sustaining an…

  By Yehuda Kurtzer Jan 2, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  The Back-to-the-Future Bagel

  Noted food writer and bagel connoisseur Mimi Sheraton once wrote in The New York Times longingly about proper, old-fashioned New York bagels — small, dense beings with the perfect chew to their center and snap to their crust: “I remember them well…. Their like will not come this way again.” Three years later, bagels are…

  By Devra Ferst Jan 2, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Playing Game of Chicken Over ICC ‘War Crimes’

  Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas may have opened the door to his government’s joining the International Criminal Court on New Year’s Eve when he signed the Rome Statute, the 2002 treaty that created the court. But that doesn’t make the Palestinian Authority — or the State of Palestine, as the United Nations now calls it —…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 1, 2015 | 8 min read
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  Opinion

  In the Shmitta Year, Lifting the Burden of Pay Day Loans

  The beginning of 2015 is also the halfway point in the year of shmitta, the once in seven years when the Bible commands that land be left fallow — a tradition that is followed today in a number of symbolic ways. One of the powerful practices of the shmitta year is society coming together to…

  By Ari Hart Jan 1, 2015 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Did We Get USY’s Interfaith Dating Shift Wrong?

  lior zaltzman Ever since publication of my Dec. 23 story on the decision by United Synagogue Youth to relax its rules barring teenage USY board members from dating non-Jews (“USY drops ban on interdating”), JTA has found itself at the center of a firestorm about coverage of the Conservative youth movement’s decision. Rabbi Julie Schonfeld,…

  By Uriel Heilman Dec 31, 2014 | 3 min read