Opinion

• Opinion

  With All Due Respect, Can’t My Critics Read?

  Those who follow me online have observed that I don’t usually respond to my critics. I confess: I have a little fan club that hangs out in the Comments section and on my Facebook page, cursing my ancestry and generally whooping it up, and they seem to be having so much fun that I hate…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  5 min read
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  Opinion

  Rebooting the Black-Jewish Alliance in Ferguson

  Cultural Leadership program participants in Crown Heights, Brooklyn (JTA) — On the evening of Aug. 12, after two consecutive nights of clashes between police and protesters in Ferguson, Mo., Mikal Smith rose to address a community meeting in the neighboring city of Florissant. In front of Governor Jay Nixon, Obama administration officials and community leaders,…

  By Anthony Weiss Aug 24, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Dark Forces Behind the Balfour Declaration — And Its Lasting Legacy

  Why does the Balfour Declaration, written in 1917 during the darkest days of World War I, tug at our elbow, insisting we pay attention to it? Indeed even today, “Operation Protective Edge” in Gaza harkens back to Balfour. Political analyst Avishai Margalit said, “You can unspool this vendetta back to the Balfour Declaration.” The Balfour…

  By Jerome Chanes Aug 23, 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

  Who Leaked Israel’s Top-Secret Briefing About Reoccupying Gaza?

  Six weeks into a Gaza conflict that continually lurches from cease-fire to live fire and back again, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing what could turn into the greatest challenge of his political career. Pressure is building in the Knesset and in the security services for a criminal investigation into the leak in early…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 22, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  In WWI, Jews Fought for Britain. So Why Didn’t Britain Fight for Jews?

  “Britain has been all she could be to Jews” — a recruitment poster issued at the beginning of World War I reads — “Jews will be all they can to Britain: Join the special Jewish unit.” At the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, it was the policy of the established Jewish community in Britain…

  By Liam Hoare Aug 22, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How Should U.S. Teachers Talk to Kids About War in Gaza?

  Getty Images (JTA) — With the new school year nearly upon us, Jewish educational leaders are scrambling to prepare their teachers to discuss this summer’s Gaza War. The most pressing challenge is to design age-appropriate conversations: At which grade level might classroom discussions include potentially frightening topics, such as the wounding of non-combatants, kidnapping of young…

  By Jack Wertheimer Aug 21, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Jewish Silence on Ferguson Is Not an Option

  Demonstrators protest the killing of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri / Getty Images After weeks upon weeks of news reports that detail what seemed to be never-ending violence in Israel and Gaza, compounded by accounts of a rise in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe and Canada and even across the United States, it would have…

  By Rori Picker Neiss Aug 20, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Forward Remembers Leonard Fein

  Leonard Fein was part of this newspaper from the time the Forward began publishing a regular English edition in 1990. Fein had heard that founding editor Seth Lipsky was planning to create a serious national Jewish newspaper and called Lipsky from Boston. They met for a drink at the Harvard Club in New York —…

  Aug 20, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  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 Aug 19, 2014 | 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