Opinion

• Opinion

  Sexual Assault and Double Standards

  Imagine we learned that 20% of Jews who attend college will experience an anti-Semitic assault by the time they are seniors. We’re talking about nice Jewish girls and boys who are just looking to have a regular college experience, including late-night trips home from the library and from drinking a little too much with friends…

  By Elissa Strauss

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  500 Years Later, a Queer-Inclusive Bentsher

  A page from the Seder Oneg Shabbos bentsher / Courtesy of David Zvi Kalman Books are probably going extinct, but it doesn’t matter — in the Jewish world, ritual texts are still key players in the spread of ideology. Three texts, in particular, have been in print since the printing press was invented: the siddur…

  By David Zvi Kalman Sep 8, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  4 Ways Jews Are Thriving in France

  People stand outside the ‘As du Fallafel’ shop in the Marais district in Paris / Getty Images The news from France is bleak: anti-Semitic sentiment is on the rise, violent incidents are piling up, and Jews are packing up and leaving for Israel. Recently, I learned that one of my cousins, tired of feeling marginalized,…

  By Anne Cohen Sep 8, 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 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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  French Jews, Escaping to Israel Is Not the Answer

  Jewish and Muslim demonstrators advocate peace at a rally in Paris / Getty Images Is it the spike in anti-Semitic acts or rather their growing banality that drives Jews in Paris, Lyon and Marseille to seriously consider emigration? Maybe both. Caught between the rise of far-right movements like the Front National and the tide of…

  By Laurent-David Samama Sep 8, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Take Back Tzniut

  The first days of school are, once again, upon us. Teachers, parents and students alike are thinking about school supplies, those first lessons, the new routine. But for some students — especially female students in junior high and high school — and those who work with them, attention has also, once again, turned to the…

  By Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg Sep 8, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  For Vogue, Palestinian Is the New Israeli

  Palestinian Gigi Hadid eyes Israeli Michaela Bercu on Vogue’s 1988 November issue / Vogue When Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour was preparing the cover shoot for her very first issue back in 1988, she chose an Israeli model — Michaela Bercu — to grace the front of the glossy magazine. This summer, as Wintour prepared for…

  By Sigal Samuel Sep 7, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Summer’s Missing Question: What Is Zionism?

  In October 1998, in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y., an obstetrician-gynecologist named Barnett Slepian was assassinated while standing in his kitchen, shot by an anti-abortion sniper hiding in the woods behind the house. It was a Friday night, and Slepian had just returned from synagogue where he was saying Kaddish for his late father. Eight…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 7, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Kidnap Plotter Indicted: Still Looks Like ‘Lone Cell’

  An Israeli military court handed down an indictment Thursday morning against a member of Hamas’ Hebron branch, Hussam Qawasmeh, charging him with helping to plan the June 12 kidnapping of three Israeli yeshiva students near Kfar Etzion in the West Bank. The document, as described in Israeli news reports, spells out a detailed, almost day-by-day…

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

  The Very Jewish Reasons Why Gay Men Loved Joan Rivers

  Getty Images Can we talk? Gay men have always loved our outsized female heroes, and Joan Rivers was right up there with the best of them. It’s no coincidence that a disproportionate number of these divas are Jewish (Rivers, Barbra Streisand) even though many (Judy Garland, Madonna) are not. In fact, gay men love strong…

  By Jay Michaelson Sep 5, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  ProSwastika Alliance Gets 501c3 Nonprofit Status

  A Swedish punk rocker with a swastika tattoo. / Getty Images It’s been a big month for swastikas. They were recently featured by Spiritual Punx on their donut swazi tee, and now they’re officially on their way to rehabilitation. At least that’s what Thomas Kaenzig, Raelian Guide and President of the ProSwastika Alliance, wants us…

  By Rachel Delia Benaim Sep 4, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  What Judaism Can Learn From Burning Man

  And now, three items from the world of celebrity — two of which you’ve probably heard about, one which you likely have not. First, yet another arrest of former cherub Justin Bieber, this time for “dangerous driving” and assault. Let’s not rush to judge the Biebs here — he was trying to elude paparazzi, who…

  By Jay Michaelson Sep 4, 2014 | 4 min read