In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
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Opinion
New Square to Neighbors: Stay Away from Our Holy Shtetl!
New Square You know the Village of New Square — that holy shtetl that keeps Judaism alive and well, that isolated Mecca of Hasidism and Follow-the-Rebbe-Blindly-ism? You may have heard of the arson attack two years ago on one of its residents, Aaron Rottenberg, which was allegedly incited by village leaders, or about the rampant…
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Opinion The Tragic Lesson of the Shabbos App
After days of discussing the Shabbos App — the new technology that claims to allow you to use your iPhone on Shabbat without breaking any Jewish laws — someone finally asked me a question that cut to the core of the issue. It was something like this: “If the Shabbos App was halachically permissible, would…
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Opinion A Drug Policy That Denies Repentance
We are emerging from the Day of Repentance — a time for contrition for misdeeds, focusing on self-improvement and making a fresh start. But what about people who don’t have the luxury of wiping their slates clean, even for minor transgressions? Are our laws and policies robbing millions of citizens of their own opportunities to…
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Opinion Maybe Next Year: My Yom Kippur Report
I vote to bring back the goat. In the days of the Temple on Yom Kippur, all sins were symbolically heaped on an actual goat — the original “scapegoat”— which was then sent off to some undefined land called Azazel. Leviticus 16:21: Thus the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible…
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Opinion Basya Schechter’s ‘Zikaron’ from Pharaoh’s Daughter’s New Album
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Opinion Comedian Elon Gold on The High Holy Days
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Opinion The Irony of Erasing Arabic
In late August, a group of Knesset members from the right flank of the Likud party, Yisrael Beiteinu and the Jewish Home party proposed a bill that would make Hebrew the only official language of Israel, annulling a requirement in existence since the British Mandate period that all official documents be published in Arabic as…
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Opinion How Israel Hides Its Asylum Seeker Problem
Lily Padula “There is no asylum seeker problem in Israel.” So said Netanyahu when, following his recent address to members of the Jewish Federations of North America in New York, one of the attendees raised the issue of African asylum-seekers. “They are illegal job immigrants,” the Israeli prime minister said, adding: “Asylum seekers can come…
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Opinion Blaming the Messenger on E. Jerusalem Settlements
(JTA) — That Jerusalem building approval blow-up between the Netanyahu and Obama governments? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pro-Israel media watchdogs like Honest Reporting are pressing the storyline that Peace Now is at fault. Which is kind of like blaming routers for the bad news you posted on the Internet. Let’s review: On Sept. 24 the…
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Opinion Who By the Sword?
Rachelle Fraenkel, the mother of Naftali Fraenkel , one of three boys kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Israel this past summer, said in a recent interview that “because I pray a lot, that does not mean that God owes me anything.” That is one way to cope theologically with a brutal event. The other…
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Opinion Israel’s Culture of Debate Needs Serious Fixing
Getty Images In her recent New York Times op-ed, Mairav Zonszein describes incidents in which left-leaning Israelis were intimidated and even attacked by right-wing thugs. She concludes that, to quote the title of her piece, “Israel Silences Dissent.” By using this phrase, she suggests that Israel displays a state-based system of intimidation against those who…
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