Opinion

• Books

  Let’s Make 2015 the Year of the Arab Jew

  Call it a confirmation bias. Everywhere I turned this year, I saw a new expression of Arab Jewish identity. The revival seems to be happening across all fields — literature, food, music — yet somehow nobody’s talking about it. As an Arab Jewish writer (my family hails from Morocco, India and Iraq), I couldn’t be…

  By Sigal Samuel

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Perks of Being a Video Reporter

  As the end of the year approaches, I feel it’s time to disclose some of the sweet perks I enjoyed as the Forward’s video reporter. Just to confess and get clean for 2015. 1) I got to travel The best thing about being a video reporter is that you can’t do your interviews over the…

  By Martyna Starosta Dec 29, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  2-0-1-4 No More

  As we say farewell to twenty fourteen To the joys, sorrows and all in-between, Let’s remember that when it comes to the Jews There is no such thing as too much good news! Could this be the year of women, we asked. The Forward 50 had more than years past. Leadership, alas, remains a man’s…

  By Jane Eisner Dec 29, 2014 | 3 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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Why Israel Cannot Ignore the World Any Longer

  It was in April 1955, at Israel’s seventh independence day celebration, that founding prime minister David Ben-Gurion issued perhaps his most famous dictum: The Jewish state’s future, he said, depended “not on what the goyim say” — that is, the nations of the world — “but on what the Jews do.” If that was ever…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 28, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Labor Quakes As Scandal Shakes Lieberman Party

  All bets are off regarding the outcome of Israel’s March elections, thanks to a massive corruption investigation involving senior figures in Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party. See the details here. Early signs suggest it could cripple his political career, even though he hasn’t been implicated. And it might badly hurt the chances of the Labor-Livni…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 26, 2014 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Why This Jew Stands With Christians on Christmas

  Displaced Christians sell holiday crafts at a market in the Kurdish city of Erbil / Getty Images As a Jew, I’m not literally celebrating Christmas — it’s not my tradition. But I will spend the day celebrating the fact that Christians are proudly observing their traditions amid relentless persecution. This year has seen more global…

  By Eliyahu Federman Dec 25, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Why I Hate the Christmas Version of ‘Hallelujah’

  Have you heard the Christmas version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” a recently released YouTube sensation by Kansas-based band Cloverton? Well, I have, and I hate it. But not for the reasons you might think. Am I pissed off — as many Jews appear to be — on Cohen’s behalf, because he’s Jewish and these musicians…

  By Sigal Samuel Dec 24, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  6 Ways To Cure Your ‘Serial’ Withdrawal

  Illustration by Lior Zaltzman Season one of Serial is over. I don’t know about you, but I shed a tear. My Thursdays just won’t be the same without the sensational “This American Life” spin-off, produced and narrated by Sarah Koenig. While Serial was a Serious podcast — serious with a capital “S,” because the true…

  By Lior Zaltzman Dec 24, 2014 | 3 min read
• Letters

  Defending the Poles

  I read with great disappointment Jane Eisner’s piece, “Chasing Ghosts, Reviving Spirits: The Fall and Rise of Poland’s Jews” (December 5). The feeling that Jews have toward Poland is understandably painful, because millions were killed there. But most of that anger is misplaced. And, the Jewish perspective on Poland is not the only one. For…

  Dec 24, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  When the Two-State Solution Collapsed

  The proverbial definition of insanity, doing something over and over again and expecting a different outcome, seems like a good way of explaining the “peace process” that the Israelis and Palestinians have been engaged in for more than 20 years. Time and time again the Israeli and Palestinian leadership have been forced to negotiate the…

  By Dan Goldenblatt Dec 24, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Stop Babying Israel at the U.N. Security Council

  Young Jews argue with pro-Palestinian supporters beside a banner calling for a Palestinian state The prospect of a U.N. Security Council vote on parameters and a timeline for Israel-Palestinian negotiations, coming as it does in the lead-up to Israeli elections, is eliciting this tricky argument: “We can’t pressure Israel when Israelis are going to the…

  By Lara Friedman Dec 23, 2014 | 3 min read