Opinion

• Opinion

  Clothes Help Make Us — From the Fig Leaf to Ralph Lauren

  Of all the methods of self-expression, the act of dressing oneself probably gets the least respect. Our culture sees an interest in clothes as a sign of vanity and materialism, the fixation of brainwashed lemmings who rely on the capitalist-driven edicts of glossy magazines to tell them who they are. This is a rather shallow…

  By Elissa Strauss

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  “Get Up for Simchat Torah” – “Roar” Parody

  Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, MI

  By Abigail Pogrebin Oct 20, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Tale of Two Sermons on Israel

  After a brutal, confusing summer of fighting between Israel and Hamas, many American rabbis were supposedly skittish about talking about Israel from the pulpit. Why, even The New York Times reported on this rabbinic reluctance: “Debate among Jews about Israel is nothing new, but some say the friction is now fire,” Laurie Goodstein wrote on…

  Oct 20, 2014 | 4 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 A new humanitarian outrage is unfolding in the Middle East. It’s not in Gaza

  

• Nora Berman The left is turning on AOC over Israel — and imperiling its own agenda

  

• Dan Perry Actually, Trump made things between Israel and Iran way worse

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

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  Opinion

  Torah Mosh Pit: My Simchat Torah Experience

  I wimped out on the single malt scotch. My Orthodox friends told me single malt is the drink of choice on Simchat Torah –- which celebrates finishing and restarting the Torah cycle –- but I could only stomach a gulp (I favor margaritas). Then I was off to dance with the Torah for the first…

  By Abigail Pogrebin Oct 20, 2014 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘Klinghoffer’ Is an Insult to Our Father’s Memory

  Lisa, left, and Ilsa Klinghoffer, the daughters of Leon Klinghoffer / Haaretz (JTA) — On Oct. 8, 1985, our 69-year-old wheelchair-bound father, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot in the head by Palestinian hijackers on the Achille Lauro cruise ship. The terrorists brutally and unceremoniously threw his body and wheelchair overboard into the Mediterranean. His body washed up…

  By Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer Oct 19, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Bibi Tries and Fails To Bypass the Palestinians

  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s big idea for a regional partnership with moderate Arab states to confront violent extremism — while leaving the Palestinian conflict on the back burner — got doused with a big bucket of cold water in mid-October. Make that two buckets. One was from his most important ally in the Arab…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 19, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Can Hamas War Be Tied to ISIS? Not If You’re Kerry

  One of these things is just like the other: A strange new flareup in U.S.-Israeli relations erupted on Friday, after a speech by Secretary of State John Kerry drew furious objections from pair of ranking Israeli cabinet ministers. Kerry was discussing the ISIS threat before a Muslim audience in Washington. He spoke of the need…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 19, 2014 | 7 min read
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  Opinion

  The Rabbi Freundel Scandal Is Our Fault, Too

  Rabbi Barry Freundel / PJC Media (Haaretz) — Kesher Israel, a prominent Modern Orthodox synagogue in Washington D.C., is reeling from a terrible scandal. Their rabbi, Barry Freundel, was arrested on charges of voyeurism and it is alleged that he installed a camera in the equivalent of a women’s locker room where he filmed potential converts…

  By Eliyahu Fink Oct 17, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  At ‘Simchat Torah Across Brooklyn,’ No Politics, Just Joy

  N.Y. Jews kick off the ‘Simchat Torah Across Brooklyn’ celebration / Dove Barbanel In the Grand Army Plaza, at the entrance to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, the circle dance threatened to close me in. I had avoided it for some time, but the energy was contagious. I gave in and danced in one of the…

  By Gabe Friedman Oct 17, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Left Out, then Lingering: Hoshana Rabba and Shemini Atzeret

  I was hoping to get through this holiday cycle without debating the mechitza — the wall that divides the genders in Orthodox shuls. I’ve committed to sampling all iterations of observance without prejudice, including segregated worship. But then on Wednesday I visited the historic Carlebach Shul for Hoshana Rabba — the seventh day of Sukkot,…

  By Abigail Pogrebin Oct 17, 2014 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  A French Jew Gazes Longingly Back at Vichy

  A glance at the current best-seller list in France reminds us that not only will we always have Paris, we will also always have Vichy. Eric Zemmour’s “Le France Suicide” has just elbowed aside Valérie Trierweiler’s memoir of her (short) time as the partner of President François Hollande, “Merci Pour Ce Moment,” as the country’s…

  By Robert Zaretsky Oct 17, 2014 | 3 min read