Opinion

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  One More Charity Scandal on Loeb & Troper’s Watch

  Illustration by Forward staff Earlier this week, the Forward ran my story on a small New York accounting firm that audits a ton of Jewish charities — including two that have faced recent scandals. A tipster called today to tell me about a third scandal-wracked Loeb & Troper client: YAI, a tremendous New York charity…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  What’s Eric Fingerhut Doing at a Jerusalem U Event?

  Eric Fingerhut speaks at Jerusalem U film screening / Dorri Olds Trying to get an unbiased education about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a never-ending conundrum. It’s like the parable of the blind men and the elephant — one blind man grabs the tail and says, “An elephant is like a rope,” another feels the trunk…

  By Dorri Olds Feb 26, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  You Want To Give Every European Jew a Gun — Really?

  Getty Images In an article originally titled “Why Every Jewish Man, Woman, and Child in Europe Should Get a Gun,” Liel Leibovitz claims that European Jews need guns because they can’t trust their governments to protect them from anti-Semitic “savages.” Leibovitz chides those trusting in “reasonable measures,” arguing instead that, “European Jews with guns can…

  By Ryan Rodrick Beiler Feb 26, 2015 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Gavin Newsom isn’t waffling on Israel — he’s voicing sensible ideas in an era of outrage

  

• Dan Perry Is this Netanyahu’s Winston Churchill moment?

  

• Emily Tamkin We must rewrite the rulebook for fighting antisemitism — or conspiracists like Joe Kent will win the narrative wars

  

• Jay Michaelson Antisemitism is exploding on the right but the Jewish establishment is focused on the left

  

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  Opinion

  Banksy Goes to Gaza

  Banksy’s street art in Gaza. The elusive English street artist Banksy has produced four new works in the Gaza Strip, taking wry aim at the human toll of last summer’s conflict. Six months to the day after the end of the Gaza war, which killed more than 2,100 Palestinians — including hundreds of children —…

  By Naomi Zeveloff Feb 26, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  A Verdict on the Palestinians

  When a New York jury found the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization liable for knowingly supporting six terrorist attacks in Israel more than a decade ago, the news was greeted with cheers and I-told-you-so’s from Israeli government officials and activists on the right. From the left, there was silence. Examine the February 23…

  Feb 26, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Cheating Hasids Out of a Future

  An innovative lawsuit in Quebec offers an intriguing model for reforming the substandard secular education provided in many Hasidic communities. For years it’s been well known that many Hasidic yeshivas in New York fall far short of the state’s education department requirement that private school curricula be “substantially equivalent” to those in public schools. As…

  By Jay Michaelson Feb 26, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How Ancient Circumcision Rite Sparked Modern Schism

  Galen and Hippocrates depicted in a 12th century mural/ Wikimedia Commons. The tradition of metzitzah b’peh goes back to biblical times but has created a modern-day dilemma for religiously observant Jews. New York City officials linked the practice to 17 cases of infant herpes since 2000, of whom two died. In the latest development, the…

  By Elon Gilad (Haaretz) Feb 25, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How My High School Predicts Israel’s Elections

  All photos courtesy of Blich High School Blich High School is as ordinary as they come. I know, because I went there for four years. It’s located on Ramat Chen street, in a sleepy Ramat Gan suburb, next to a quiet local elementary school. But around election season, Blich becomes something else, something important, as…

  By Lior Zaltzman Feb 25, 2015 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Can Yoga Fix the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?

  Farashe (JTA) — Inhale your arms up into warrior one. Exhale and extend your arms into warrior two. I followed the instructor’s soft but firm voice as she led me and five other women through the yoga poses, and the deep breathing helped to calm my nerves. The large tiled room was gently lit through white…

  By Batya Ungar-Sargon Feb 24, 2015 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Is It Even Possible to Vote Against Israeli Occupation?

  Getty Images In the latest news to come out of this already-strange Israeli election, the Jewish Press stated on Sunday that the ballots for the upcoming election will be printed in Karnei Shomron by Yisrapot, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank considered illegal under international law. The pro-settler writer at that publication claimed that…

  By Jonathan Katz Feb 24, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Young British Jews Are Hiring a West Bank Lawyer

  Israeli soldiers arrest a young Palestinian boy following clashes in Hebron / Getty Images I am part of a group of 30 young Zionist leaders from the British Jewish community. As people who love Israel, we want to see it thrive as a sanctuary for the Jewish people, one that stays true to the democratic,…

  By Jessica Belle Weiss Feb 23, 2015 | 3 min read