Opinion

• Opinion

  Israeli Rabbinate Should Learn From Shavuot Heroine

  Russian immigrants to Israel / Courtesy of Alona Sibuk Her story is well known. She came from a foreign land where she lived like a princess. Despite a very questionable connection to Judaism, she chose to follow her mother-in-law to Israel. There, she lived in abject poverty, getting by only by taking charity. Even when…

  By Pesach Sommer

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Want Authentic Shavuot Meals? Try Fruit, Not Dairy

  As a Jewish food educator, I’m often asked for ways to enhance holiday celebrations with authentically themed dishes for the season. What was once a simple plate of apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah becomes a series of prepared desserts featuring these key ingredients. Chanukah gelt can now be acquired with fair trade certification. Vegans…

  By Sarah Chandler Jun 2, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Shavuot Is Holiday That Speaks of Love And Freedom

  The contemporary notion of freedom is twisted, at least in Judaism’s eyes. Many moderns feel fettered by — depending on the particulars of their lives — their jobs, finances, parents, children or spouses, and they imagine that cutting whatever bonds they find bothersome will make them free. But freedom isn’t shaking oneself loose of human…

  Jun 2, 2014 | 3 min read

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• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman There’s a shocking new report on civilian deaths in Gaza. If only it were accurate.

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s new gift to the far right could help end the Gaza war

  

• Emily Tamkin Entering motherhood — and an obsession with the works of an Italian Jewish literary hero

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Why Is It So Hard To Convert to Judaism?

  In February 2013, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue, as fancy and important a place as its name suggests, floated an intriguing idea. In a sermon to his congregation on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Cosgrove urged the Conservative movement, his movement, to become much, much more welcoming to anyone interested in converting to Judaism….

  Jun 2, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  The Shaming of Rabbi Barry Starr

  Getty Images I don’t know Rabbi Barry Starr personally, but I don’t like how he is being vilified in the media, most recently in an article in The Forward with the lurid headline “When a Good Rabbi Goes Bad.” We still don’t know all the facts in this case, and we’ve already found this man…

  By Adena Cohen-Bearak May 31, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How Wily Donald Sterling Beat These 5 Investments

  Getty Images (Reuters) — Donald Sterling bought the Los Angeles Clippers for 16 million and is set to sell the team for $2 billion. That’s a 16,000% return or a lofty 16% a year. Here’s a look at other investments he could have made at the time, and how much less he would have made….

  By Dan Burns May 31, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Right Wing Gadfly Group Has Day in Knesset

  Im Tirtzu, the right-wing Israeli truth squad best known for bashing the New Israel Fund, allowed itself a victory lap this week after taking credit for an “emergency” gathering in the Knesset on “delegitimization of Israel.” Unfortunately, as with so much else the organization touches, the facts of the case are a bit murky. Im…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 30, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Agudath Israel Is Wrong About Yeshivat Chovevei Torah

  Courtesy of Agudath Israel As I concluded a yearlong course that I have been teaching at a local day school, a student approached me with a concerned look on his face. “What if I don’t know what my Jewish identity is?” I pushed him to say more. “Well, my parents had the Holocaust, but —…

  By Jordan Soffer May 30, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Is Avigdor Mad at Bibi?

  Getty Images Since Israel’s last general election a year and a half ago, the country’s two most powerful party leaders have exhibited surprisingly good relations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman united their parties, Likud and Yisrael Beytenu, before the election and have surprised observers by keeping them together and getting along…

  By Nathan Jeffay May 30, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Have the Jews Lost Europe?

  ‘At what point,” columnist Jeffrey Goldberg tweeted recently “do the Jews of America and the Jews of Israel tell the Jews of Europe that it might be time to get out?” While Goldberg did not elucidate the reasons for his stark view of the future of European Jewry, it is likely that he had in…

  By Dave Rich May 30, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Don’t Ban Us From the Celebrate Israel Parade

  Conservative Israeli journalist Ben-Dror Yemini, a frequent critic of the New Israel Fund and progressives in general, recently wrote about the manufactured controversy regarding NIF’s participation in the Celebrate Israel parade on Sunday. Acknowledging that we do not in fact support global BDS, the lie that’s been told to justify our exclusion, he wrote that…

  By Daniel Sokatch May 30, 2014 | 3 min read