In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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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,…
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Opinion Changing My Mind On Same-Sex Ceremonies
Josh and Mark on the day of their commitment ceremony / Danielle Perelman On a recent Sunday night, I did something that in the past I never thought I would do. Nine years ago, I voted “no” on the most well-known Conservative Movement responsum on homosexuality, the Dorff-Nevins-Reisner teshuvah on “Homosexuality, Human Dignity and Halakhah.”…
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Opinion Why Jewish Poverty Matters Now — More Than Ever Before
The long and painful demise of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (still underway) and the shockingly speedy death of FEGS is a staggering blow to the entire New York community and especially to the Jewish community. State and city agencies and UJA-Federation are working hard to ensure continuity of service for many thousands of…
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Opinion Speech-Gate Won’t Dethrone Benjamin Netanyahu — But Bottle Deposits Might
It’s been a month since Benjamin Netanyahu first infuriated the White House by accepting a Republican invitation to address Congress and attack the president’s Iran policy. A month in which American Middle East watchers have been asking anyone they could find whether the resulting chill in U.S.-Israeli relations would hurt the Israeli prime minister in…
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Opinion How Norwegian Muslim ‘Peace Ring’ Changed Me
All photos by Ryan Rodrick Beiler After four years covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a photojournalist, I’m not used to covering good news. Even before my recent relocation to Norway, land of the Peace Prize and Oslo Accords, it’s been easy to be cynical about institutionalized efforts to promote coexistence. But a recent grassroots effort…
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Opinion How Could We Have Trusted Rabbi Barry Freundel?
Now that Rabbi Barry Freundel has pleaded guilty to peeping at 52 women while they went to the mikveh — prosecutors say he spied on 100 more women, but outside the statute of limitations — we finally can take off the qualifiers and accept that he is guilty. And that means we can begin some…
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Opinion No, Mr. President, It Isn’t Just Extremism. It’s Jihad
President Obama may have a fine plan in the works for combating what he calls “violent extremism,” but he doesn’t do the cause any good by tiptoeing around the problem. There are many sources of violent extremism in the world, but there’s basically just one that’s terrorizing vast sections of humanity right now, and that’s…
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Opinion It’s Time for Black Jews To Lead
The #BlackLivesMatter movement has reverberated throughout the country, as protesters from Ferguson, Missouri, to New York have taken bold action to assert the rights, dignity and full humanity of Americans who have been systematically targeted for abusive policing: communities of color still lit by the brutal afterglow of centuries of legal discrimination and violence. The…
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Opinion Let’s Get Over Our Non-Orthodox Inferiority Complex
When I was in high school, I stopped wearing my kippah. I felt myself drifting away from the ultra-Orthodox community of my childhood and the Modern Orthodoxy my parents tried to model for me at home. I stopped wearing my kippah because I wanted to disaffiliate from the Orthodox Jews that filled New York City…
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Opinion Why Was Muslim Graduation Banned from Hasidic Montreal?
Officials in the Montreal borough of Outremont — which includes a sizeable Orthodox Jewish population — are defending a last-minute decision this weekend to nix a reception hosted by a Muslim organization at a city-owned community center. According to the Montreal Gazette, borough mayor Marie Cinq-Mars told reporters the event was presented as a graduation…
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Opinion Why We Need Birthright in Reverse
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to accept an invitation to speak before the U.S. Congress about Iran has ignited a rancorous debate within the American Jewish community. Some argue that the speech will alienate Democrats and undermine bipartisan support for Israel. Others say that a potential U.S. deal with Iran leaving the mullahs’ nuclear capacity intact…
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