Opinion

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  Bush Press Secretary Live Tweets 9/11

  Getty Images Former President George W. Bush’s press secretary Ari Fleischer is remembering the tragic events of September 11 in an usual way — on Twitter. As Mashable reports, Fleischer, who served as Bush’s press secretary from January 2001 to July 2003, was with the president when the first plane smashed into the World Trade…

  By Anne Cohen

  10 min read
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  Opinion

  Judging Ray Rice Instead of Ourselves

  Ray Rice / Getty Images “Justice, justice, shall you pursue,” we are taught — and what could be more just than punishing a man shown, on video, punching and knocking out his wife in what seems like a brutal, cruel attack? Thus have we seen, in the last 72 hours, a cascade of condemnations of…

  By Jay Michaelson Sep 11, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Taking the Banality Out of Evil

  The idea that evil could be “banal” still shocks us. It’s much scarier to consider that genocide could be carried out unthinkingly by the most vacuous of bureaucrats and not by intrinsically bad people acting with bad intent. This new moral category was Hannah Arendt’s now infamous reaction to witnessing the 1961 trial of Adolf…

  By Gal Beckerman Sep 11, 2014 | 5 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 ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• 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

  

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  Opinion

  The Salaita Scandal

  This editorial would be much easier to write if we thought that Steven G. Salaita is either a) a victim of pro-Israel pressure because a major public university abruptly revoked his appointment to a tenured position after he published offensive posts on Twitter; or b) a biased, intellectually lazy scholar whose vulgar tweets are only…

  Sep 11, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  VIDEO: Israel Is the Answer to Your Love Handles

  A still from the Israeli Ministry of Absorption’s new aliyah ad / YouTube Dear young American Jews: Israel is the answer to the s***|ty life you see before you. That’s the takeaway from the Israeli Ministry of Absorption’s new aliyah ad, a ridiculously kitschy video that urges U.S. Jews to trade in their boring American…

  By Sigal Samuel Sep 10, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Modesty Is the New Black

  Fashion is a tricky one for feminists. There are two poles to navigate, each with deep roots in thousands of years of patriarchy, and few of us make it through uncompromised. On one side we feel the pressure to dress sexy and look attractive, and on the other, a pressure to cover-up, because it is…

  By Elissa Strauss Sep 10, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Jewish Press Ad for Gay ‘Conversion’ Therapy Causes Outrage

  Getty Images The Jewish Press’ advertisement for JONAH International, an organization dedicated to gay “conversion” therapy, sparked outrage on social media today. The ad, featured on the site’s homepage, prominently displays the organization’s navy and white logo in the foreground, with their tagline mission statement — “Institute for Gender Affirmation: Overcoming Homosexuality” — and organizational…

  By Rachel Delia Benaim Sep 10, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Could Lieberman Topple Bibi? We’ll Know Soon

  Well, I said he’d do it and he’s doing it. Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has reportedly (see here and here) offered the job of United Nations ambassador to the information and homefront defense minister, Gilad Erdan, when current ambassador Ron Proshor steps down in December. Erdan’s departure would bring the next candidate on the…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 9, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Yeshiva Retracts ‘Mazel Tov’ to Gay Newlyweds

  A Jewish gay couple takes part in the annual pride parade in Jerusalem / Getty Images “Mazel tov on your engagement! Oops — actually, strike that. No mazel tov for you.” That’s essentially the message Israeli yeshiva Ma’ale Gilboa conveyed to one of its former students and his partner this week, upon realizing that the…

  By Sigal Samuel Sep 9, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Does Israel Buy Influence at U.S. Think Tanks?

  U.S. President Barack Obama speaks alongside Saban Forum Chairman Haim Saban / Getty Images The New York Times over the weekend shed some needed sunlight on the close ties between Washington think tanks and foreign governments. Digging into the funding practices of some of the nation’s most respected research institutions, the article outlined an impressive…

  By Nathan Guttman Sep 9, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  News Quiz: What Did Joan Rivers Say?

  Getty Images Joan Rivers, Marcel Proust and the U.S. Open would all, if they could, welcome you to this week’s quiz. After all, they’re in it!

  By Lenore Skenazy Sep 9, 2014 | < 1 min read