Opinion

• 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

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Did Barack Obama Snatch Victory From Jaws of Victory in U.N. ‘Palestine’ Vote?

  (Haaretz) — American Jewish organizations utilized a rare opportunity to lavish praise on Tuesday night on the Obama administration, in general, and on John Kerry and Samantha Power, in particular, for their “leadership” in thwarting the Palestinian proposal to the United Nations Security Council. Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents extolled Kerry’s “tireless diplomacy” while…

  By Chemi Shalev Dec 31, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Does Home Invasion Signal Beginning of End for French ‘Israelites’?

  It is thanks to the sort of crime usually relegated to local police blotters that France will need to reflect, in 2015, on the sort of republic it wishes to be. In early December 2014, three young thugs broke into a young couple’s apartment in the Parisian suburb of Créteil, tied up the couple, ransacked…

  By Robert Zaretsky Dec 31, 2014 | 2 min read

Columnists View All

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

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• 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

  Palestinian U.N. Bid Fails by 1 Vote. Was That the Plan?

  The Palestinian effort to have the U.N. Security Council set a deadline for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank failed to win the necessary nine votes for approval this afternoon. Palestinian spokesmen had spoken confidently before the vote of winning nine or even 10 votes. But two nations whose support they said they expected, Nigeria…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 31, 2014 | 10 min read
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  Opinion

  Is Ted Cruz a Big Draw in Kosher Vacationland?

  (JTA) — Imagine your ideal Passover getaway. What would it include? Sandy beaches? Emerald green fairways? Kosher haute cuisine? Sen. Ted Cruz? If the Prime Hospitality Group is any judge, you’ll want all of those things. Especially the last one. Politico is reporting that the Prime Group, which specializes in offering lavish getaways for religiously observant…

  By Anthony Weiss Dec 30, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Jewish #BlackLivesMatter Activists Should Take Back Seat

  The Black Lives Matter movement that has erupted in the past few months in response to the killing of unarmed African-Americans — the most well-known of whom are Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice — has struck a deep chord with Americans of all races and backgrounds. As the protests continue, more and more…

  By Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg Dec 30, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Sticking by Shabbat Was Real Story at USY

  (Haaretz) — The Jewish Telegraphic Agency wire service ran an article about the United Synagogue Youth’s annual international convention, under the headline “USY drops ban on interdating.” Unfortunately, this headline, which was widely circulated among Jewish news outlets, failed to capture the real issue that emerged from the confab. A more apt headline would have been…

  By Dan Dorsch Dec 29, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  2-0-1-4 No More

  As we say farewell to twenty fourteen To the joys, sorrows and all in-between, Let’s remember that when it comes to the Jews There is no such thing as too much good news! Could this be the year of women, we asked. The Forward 50 had more than years past. Leadership, alas, remains a man’s…

  By Jane Eisner Dec 29, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Books

  Let’s Make 2015 the Year of the Arab Jew

  Call it a confirmation bias. Everywhere I turned this year, I saw a new expression of Arab Jewish identity. The revival seems to be happening across all fields — literature, food, music — yet somehow nobody’s talking about it. As an Arab Jewish writer (my family hails from Morocco, India and Iraq), I couldn’t be…

  By Sigal Samuel Dec 29, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Perks of Being a Video Reporter

  As the end of the year approaches, I feel it’s time to disclose some of the sweet perks I enjoyed as the Forward’s video reporter. Just to confess and get clean for 2015. 1) I got to travel The best thing about being a video reporter is that you can’t do your interviews over the…

  By Martyna Starosta Dec 29, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Israel Cannot Ignore the World Any Longer

  It was in April 1955, at Israel’s seventh independence day celebration, that founding prime minister David Ben-Gurion issued perhaps his most famous dictum: The Jewish state’s future, he said, depended “not on what the goyim say” — that is, the nations of the world — “but on what the Jews do.” If that was ever…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 28, 2014 | 4 min read