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
All That Divides Us as We Atone
The Season of Repentance is shaping up to be a tough slog this year. Of course, when Yom Kippur comes, Jews will gather in our millions in synagogues across the globe to recite the prayers together and bask in the warmth of family for a few hours. In fact, it’s the one moment in the…
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Opinion Hearing a Mother’s Pain on Rosh Hashanah
An almost impossibly difficult year is coming to an end, and a new one, filled with new hope and new possibility, is upon us. As we do each year on Rosh Hashanah, we will stand together and listen to the piercing cries of the shofar. This year more than ever, it’s important that we stop…
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Opinion Do Jewish Actions Ever Cause Anti-Semitism?
Jewish graves daubed with anti-Semitic slogans in a German cemetery / Getty Images Is anti-Semitism ever a response to things that Jews do? Jeffrey Goldberg thinks saying “Jews… Jewish organizations, or the Jewish state” ever cause anti-Semitism amounts to blaming the victim. Thus he attacked Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, for…
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Opinion VIDEO: Making the Holiday Sweet — With Bees
Sweet Tradition from Jewish Daily Forward on Vimeo. As we are getting ready to dip our apple slices into honey for a sweet new year, beekeeper Liane Newton ensures that the precious queens and worker bees make it safely through the winter. Newton runs nycbeekeeping.org a nonprofit that provides resources and a support system for…
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Opinion On Rosh Hashanah, a Breath of Life
In the year that we are now parting with, 5774, it became dangerous once again to be a Jew. Israel, subject to sustained missile attack, discovered how hard it is to fight an asymmetric war against a terrorist group ruthless enough to place rocket launchers beside schools, hospitals and mosques. It found itself condemned by…
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Opinion Haredim and Hollywood
We never thought we’d say this, but there is a dangerous similarity between children raised in the wealthy, sun-soaked Los Angeles enclave of Westside and children whose families follow an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who runs a prominent yeshiva in Philadelphia. Both are victims of their parents’ misguided decision to bypass science and civics by ignoring the…
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Opinion When Will Orthodoxy Be Ready for Me?
Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest at Jerusalem’s gay pride parade / Getty Images I’ve written about the successes and shortcomings of my fourteen years of Modern Orthodox day school education before, from religious, secular, and Zionist perspectives. I’ve also written about the thought processes behind my decisions to leave the Modern Orthodox world and join — at…
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Opinion What Islamic Art Museum Can Learn From Jews
Courtesy of the Aga Khan Museum North America just got its first museum devoted to Islamic art, a $300 million project in Toronto made possible by the Aga Khan. The “over one thousand artefacts and artworks” spanning “over one thousand years of history” are meant to capture “the artistic accomplishments of Muslim civilisations from the…
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Opinion Gay Party Organizers Use ISIS Imagery in Ads
Drek’s ISIS-inspired party poster / Facebook Advertising is a tough business. People are busy. Getting them to come out to your event can be hard. But does that justify using ISIS imagery to gain publicity for your party? Tel Aviv’s popular gay party organizers, Drek, apparently think so. In recent advertising, they used imagery from…
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Opinion Like the Nazis, ISIS Must Be Confronted
If there’s one thing we should have learned from the 20th century, it’s that wars are wicked, murderous affairs that defile the spirit of humankind. That despite this universal truth, there are some wars that must be fought, as wicked as they might be, because the alternative is even more unspeakable. And that some other…
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Opinion Self-Flagellation in Summer: Rosh Hashanah Prep
The instruction manual from the Israeli company that shipped my ram’s horn (via Amazon in August) says the blowing-technique can be learned by “filling your mouth with water. Then make a small hole at the right side of your mouth, and blow out the water with a strong pressure. Practice this again and again until…
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