Opinion

• Opinion

  Is the Israeli Left Anti-Democracy?

  In Haaretz, Moshe Arens has accused the Israeli left of not accepting, first, that Israeli democracy is working fine, and second, the specific “verdict of the electorate.” Arens’ framing of Israeli democracy is flawed because he leaves several important points out of his description. To begin with, the Israeli left doesn’t wonder why the system…

  By Brent Sasley

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  How This Summer Made Me a Racist

  Israelis hide in a concrete pipe used as a shelter during a Palestinian rocket attack / Getty Images This summer, I heard the word “we” over and over as Jews around the world (appropriately) condemned the horrific murder of Palestinian youth Mohammed Abu Khdeir. “We Jews don’t do this,” they claimed, even as empirical evidence…

  By Leah Bieler Sep 29, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  News Quiz: Which Politician Just Put Their Foot in Their Mouth?

  Robert Ransdell’s campaign slogan on view in Kentucky / WLWT Naked pictures! Brisket! How to pick up girls! We are starting this new year in style, here at your weekly news quiz. Dive in!

  By Lenore Skenazy Sep 29, 2014 | < 1 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 I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

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

  

• Dan Perry Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  All That Divides Us as We Atone

  The Season of Repentance is shaping up to be a tough slog this year. Of course, when Yom Kippur comes, Jews will gather in our millions in synagogues across the globe to recite the prayers together and bask in the warmth of family for a few hours. In fact, it’s the one moment in the…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 29, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Breadcrumbs and Gedaliah: My Post-Rosh Report

  I remember, as a kid, feeling that the Unetanetokef prayer (“Who will live and who will die”) didn’t apply to me. “Who by sword” seemed archaic; “Who by water” remote. But that prayer becomes alarmingly vivid as we get older. This year it felt as if every peril leapt off the page. “Who shall see…

  By Abigail Pogrebin Sep 29, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Can We Talk About Climate Change?

  The organizers’ official count of participants in the People’s Climate March in New York City on September 21 was 400,000, but some thought it was even higher, so clogged were the Manhattan streets, so steady the flow of people, so joyful and determined the mood. It was a diverse crowd in some respects — age,…

  Sep 29, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Hearing a Mother’s Pain on Rosh Hashanah

  An almost impossibly difficult year is coming to an end, and a new one, filled with new hope and new possibility, is upon us. As we do each year on Rosh Hashanah, we will stand together and listen to the piercing cries of the shofar. This year more than ever, it’s important that we stop…

  By Shai Held Sep 24, 2014 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Do Jewish Actions Ever Cause Anti-Semitism?

  Jewish graves daubed with anti-Semitic slogans in a German cemetery / Getty Images Is anti-Semitism ever a response to things that Jews do? Jeffrey Goldberg thinks saying “Jews… Jewish organizations, or the Jewish state” ever cause anti-Semitism amounts to blaming the victim. Thus he attacked Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, for…

  By Raphael Magarik Sep 24, 2014 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  VIDEO: Making the Holiday Sweet — With Bees

  Sweet Tradition from Jewish Daily Forward on Vimeo. As we are getting ready to dip our apple slices into honey for a sweet new year, beekeeper Liane Newton ensures that the precious queens and worker bees make it safely through the winter. Newton runs nycbeekeeping.org a nonprofit that provides resources and a support system for…

  By Martyna Starosta Sep 23, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Haredim and Hollywood

  We never thought we’d say this, but there is a dangerous similarity between children raised in the wealthy, sun-soaked Los Angeles enclave of Westside and children whose families follow an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who runs a prominent yeshiva in Philadelphia. Both are victims of their parents’ misguided decision to bypass science and civics by ignoring the…

  Sep 23, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  On Rosh Hashanah, a Breath of Life

  In the year that we are now parting with, 5774, it became dangerous once again to be a Jew. Israel, subject to sustained missile attack, discovered how hard it is to fight an asymmetric war against a terrorist group ruthless enough to place rocket launchers beside schools, hospitals and mosques. It found itself condemned by…

  By Jonathan Sacks Sep 23, 2014 | 6 min read