Opinion

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  Israeli Soldier David Menachem Gordon in His Own Words

  David Menachem Gordon / Facebook David Menachem Gordon, the IDF soldier from Ohio who was found dead on Tuesday, left a record explaining his journey from budding American journalist to Israeli army recruit. The 21-year-old’s personal blog, “Shields of David,” together with his writings available elsewhere online, offers a glimpse of an articulate young man…

  By Sigal Samuel and Anne Cohen

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  News Quiz: What Jewish Character Did Robin Williams Play?

  Getty Images Mayor Bloomberg, Robin Williams and Leonard Nimoy are all together in this week’s news quiz – something that probably never happened in real life. But I suppose it might have.

  By Lenore Skenazy Aug 19, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Jews Should Care About Ferguson

  In many ways, it has always been like this. As long as there has been an American republic, there have been white men in power oppressing everyone else. And more particularly, (disproportionately) white soldiers and cops committing acts of violence against (disproportionately) people of color. Not much new here. And yet, it has never been…

  By Jay Michaelson Aug 19, 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

  

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  Opinion

  Summer Camp With Leonard Fein Changed Me Forever

  Leonard Fein The Jewish media has been awash with words of admiration for Leonard Fein, who died August 14. They come from those who mourn the passing of a person who embodies his name, a lion who roars. Their tributes rightly reflect upon his fire for social justice, his eloquence and his willingness to put…

  By Hasia Diner Aug 18, 2014 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  How Israelis and Palestinians Cope — With Two Different Wars

  Getty Images The first thing I noticed when my shared taxi dropped me off in Jerusalem earlier this month were the flags. In the Beit Hakerem neighborhood where I was staying — a mostly secular Jewish area in southwest Jerusalem — balconies were strung with large Israeli flags and rows of miniature ones. Car antennas…

  By Naomi Zeveloff Aug 18, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Rocket Shelter Comedy Tour Goes to Israel

  Courtesy of Benji Lovitt The “we laugh to keep from crying” line sometimes feels a bit of a cliché but when you live in Israel, you experience it daily. At least during the last 40-plus days of Operation Protective Edge, which still hasn’t officially ended during the current ceasefire talks. In the eight years I’ve…

  By Benji Lovitt Aug 18, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What Happens in Israel Doesn’t Stay in Israel

  Twenty years ago, on July 18, 1994, a car bomb in Buenos Aires destroyed the AMIA center, headquarters of Argentina’s main Jewish organizations. The blast killed 89 people and injured more than 300. It remains the deadliest single attack on Jews since World War II. It almost caused a revolution in Jewish thinking about anti-Semitism….

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 18, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  An Israeli Novelist’s Cry for Peace. A Rabbi’s Reply

  * Novelist David Grossman spoke Saturday night at a peace rally at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, sponsored by the Peace Now movement and the Meretz and Hadash parties, among others. It was attended by an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 people, which the left considered an impressive show of force and the right mocked as a…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 18, 2014 | 12 min read
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  Opinion

  Board Member Quits LGBT Synagogue Over Gaza

  Congregation Beth Simchat Torah’s Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum / WN Claiming “Hamas propaganda” has infected the pulpit, a director of the nation’s largest LGBT synagogue resigned in an angry e-mail this week, igniting a firestorm on social media. But the rabbi of New York’s Congregation Beth Simchat Torah is calling the resignation letter “a twisted perversion…

  By Michael Kaminer Aug 17, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Where Is Bibi’s ‘Mazel Tov’ for Mahmoud and Morel?

  Mahmoud Mansour and Morel Malka on their wedding day, August 17, 2014 / Haaretz (Haaretz) — To disrupt a wedding celebration and spoil the joy of two young people joining their lives together, one needs a very good reason. Racism clearly does not qualify. There’s an easy way for even the most tribal and anti-assimilationist Jew…

  By Allison Kaplan Sommer Aug 17, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Godology: In the Beginning

  I recently wrote a column in which I examined my belief in God — or Godishness, as I called it. I spoke about how I have no rational or scientific reason to believe in God, how I have tried my darndest to talk myself out of it, but no matter how far I travel down…

  By Elissa Strauss and Scott Perlo Aug 17, 2014 | 6 min read