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
How To Say ‘Chickenshit’ in Hebrew
Thinkstock / Getty Images Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confronted quite a challenge when the Atlantic’s Jeff Goldberg quoted Obama administration officials calling him a “chickenshit.” Israeli reporters, in turn, faced their own challenge: How to translate “chickenshit” into Hebrew. Modern Hebrew is rich with phrases alluding to the Bible and rabbinic literature. Swear words,…
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Opinion Why the Mikveh Scandal Cuts So Deep
The sordid story of the Washington rabbi accused of spying on naked women in his synagogue’s ritual bath is more than just a local scandal, an Orthodox scandal, a conversion scandal. It is a Jewish scandal, tearing deep into the heart of a religious hierarchy that is dominated by men who are rarely held to…
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Opinion Separate Buses? That’s How Occupation Rolls.
Getty Images As of next month, Israel will operate separate buses for Palestinian residents of the West Bank returning from jobs as day laborers in Israel, thanks to political pressure from West Bank settlers who donʼt want to ride on the same buses as “Arabs.” The question is: Should we care? Settler leaders claim that…
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Opinion What’s New at the Metropolitan Opera?
Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera Rudy Giuliani, Benjamin Netanyahu and Moses. One of these men is not like the other, and yet here they all get equal time. So does a Top Chef contestant. And so does Bubbie.
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Opinion How Barack Obama Refuses To Learn From the Past
Today’s lesson is about the importance of learning from history. You know what they say: Those who don’t are doomed to repeat it and all that. What they never tell you is how important it is to learn the right lesson. Otherwise you’ll just follow your first mistake with a bigger one. That’s the part…
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Opinion How ‘Klinghoffer’ Stereotypes Both Sides
“The Death of Klinghoffer” is among the most anti-Israel works of art I’ve experienced in recent years. And yet, it’s so intent on crafting a Cowboys-and-Indians story that it reduces its Palestinians to offensive, Orientalist caricatures. That’s right: This opera isn’t anti-Jewish. It’s anti-Palestinian. Far too much ink has already been spilled on the question…
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Opinion No, AIPAC Isn’t Anti-Israel
Getty Images Jay Michaelson has it wrong. AIPAC is not, as he argues, anti-Israel. Most of what the lobby does is focused on strengthening the bond between the United States and Israel — various aspects of this relationship, including the U.S.-Israel security cooperation — which is undisputedly pro-Israel. But not only AIPAC. All American Jewish…
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Opinion Israeli Soldiers Create Least Sexy Pin-Up Ever
Just a couple of months after the Gaza war, Israel has found a new way “to show the world the beauty of Israel and its people” — via the power of a pin-up calendar featuring real IDF soldiers. Or, as the creators of the MTKL Israeli Army Women Calendar like to call them, “the chosen amongst…
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Opinion Take Sex Assault Probes Off Campus
What happens when institutions or communities don’t want to properly investigate allegations of sexual abuse for fear that it will harm their reputations or expose their powerful? We cry for reform, and in this case, reform means going outside. So U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York introduced the Military Justice Improvement Act earlier this…
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Opinion Settlements, Snub Cause Latest U.S.-Israel Strain
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning a massive new wave of construction in the West Bank, according to a report Sunday night on Israel’s Channel 2 News. It’s part of a deal to calm his restive allies in the settler-backed Jewish Home party. The Channel 2 report has since been confirmed independently by Haaretz,…
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Opinion When Palestinians Bury an American Teen
Palestinian mourners carry Orwa Hammad to a prayer session at a Silwad school / Naomi Zeveloff On Sunday afternoon, the main street in Silwad, a village north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was lined with parked cars for as far as the eye could see. Palestinians from all over the area had come…
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