Opinion

• 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

  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

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Gavin Newsom isn’t waffling on Israel — he’s voicing sensible ideas in an era of outrage

  

• Dan Perry The moral degradation of Israel’s far-right is even worse than you think

  

• Emily Tamkin We must rewrite the rulebook for fighting antisemitism — or conspiracists like Joe Kent will win the narrative wars

  

• Jay Michaelson Antisemitism is exploding on the right but the Jewish establishment is focused on the left

  

The Latest

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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
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  Opinion

  A Disgusting Reflection

  The top floor of the Jüdisches Museum Wien, the Jewish Museum in Vienna, is a storehouse of fancy stuff: shiny breastplates and bulbuous ornaments for the sacred Torah, ritual objects for the home, elaborately decorated in silver and gold and jewels, collected and donated by wealthy men reflecting the richness of Austrian Jewish life, and…

  By Jane Eisner Sep 4, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How Do We Avenge Steven Sotloff’s Death?

  Shiite Muslim fighters take part in a last combat training before joining the government forces to fight Islamic State jihadists / Getty Images And so another beheading of another American journalist — this time “one of us,” as today’s Forward editorial has reminded us. “One of us” meaning an American Jew, and one whose family…

  By Jay Michaelson Sep 3, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Steven Sotloff Was Jewish

  UPDATED We can now say that Steven Joel Sotloff was Jewish. We can now say that he was the grandson of Holocaust survivors, that his mother was a preschool teacher at Temple Beth Am in Pinecrest, Florida, a Reform synagogue in South Miami where Sotloff attended day school. We can now relay to you that…

  Sep 3, 2014 | 4 min read