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
Enough With the Menorah Selfies Already!
Illustration by Lior Zaltzman A friend of mine on Facebook joked, “Can you fulfill pirsumei nisa (the commandment to publicize the Hanukkah miracle) by posting pictures of your menorah online?” It’s a fun, quasi-halachic question that juxtaposes an ancient commandment with contemporary technology. But it’s also a reflection of how much amateur photography has become…
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Opinion News Quiz: What New Law Did President Obama Pass?
Getty Images Latkes, new laws, Hillary Clinton and tri-sexuals. Some weeks are just weirder than others, even for Jews.
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Opinion How David Grossman Grieves
This past year saw the publication in English of the renowned Israeli author David Grossman’s latest book, “Falling Out of Time.” It’s a sustained meditation on grief told as an allegory and mostly in verse — a book filled with the raw emotion that Grossman feels every day over the loss of his son, Uri,…
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Opinion How To Survive One of the Longest Nights Ever
Wikipedia If ever there was a good night to light Hanukkah candles, it’s tonight — one of the longest nights in human history. No, that’s not a figure of speech. It is literally one of the longest nights Earth has ever seen! You may already know that December 21-22 is the winter solstice, the longest…
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Opinion Spies Spar in Shin Bet-Mossad Turf War
Tensions continue to mount between Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency and the country’s other two intelligence services, the Mossad foreign intelligence agency and the military intelligence directorate of the Israel Defense Forces. So reports military correspondent Amir Rapoport in the Friday edition of the center-right daily Maariv. It’s a messy tangle, even by the…
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Opinion Israeli Politics Enters Silly Season as Elections Loom
Israel’s snap parliamentary elections are just three months away, but the campaign is still stuck in the doldrums. You might call it the silly season. The parties in the outgoing Knesset have received their first round of public campaign funding and started flailing away at each other, but nobody knows yet which ones will be…
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Opinion ‘Serial’ Ends With Nod to Jewish Prof
Illustration by Lior Zaltzman (JTA) — No spoilers here about the “Serial” season finale, but I will say this much: The episode ends with … a special thanks to a certain Jewish studies professor. That would be Benjamin Schreier, the interim director of the Jewish studies program at Penn State and the husband of “Serial”…
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Opinion Israel Never Would’ve Killed ‘The Interview’ — So Why Did We?
As a liberal, I generally find American culture to be on testosterone overload. On average, we are a macho, gun-toting, exceptionalist nation that prizes its cowboys and cops. Generally speaking, this is more true the more conservative a place you’re in, but it permeates the culture, with its exhortation to “man up” and its denigration…
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Opinion Don’t Let North Korea Win Battle of ‘Interview’
(Reuters) — Moviemakers strive to outdo themselves with fantastic plots, super-heroes and special effects. But the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment this month proves that, even in Hollywood, reality is still stranger than fiction. U.S. officials have now determined that North Korea was behind the devastating cyber attack. The rogue nation is also linked to the…
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Opinion Why All Jews Should Listen to ‘Serial’
Illustration by Lior Zaltzman Hello, my name is Lior and I’m a podcast addict. I’ve been streaming “This American Life” for years. I’ve turned podcasts into verbs. No, I can’t answer the phone right now, I’m “Savage Love”-ing. Whenever my husband says “Ok. Alright?” I want to scream “This is Radiolab!” Once I even used…
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Opinion A Most Inspiring Hanukkah at the White House
By just before 8 o’clock last night, my feet really began to hurt. I was standing at attention, waiting for the President and his wife, wedged between four bearded Haredi men, a woman with very bare shoulders, and several people way taller than me who had their iPhone cameras at the ready and looked as…
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