Opinion

• Opinion

  How Is This Wall Different? Pope Francis Cements an Icon

  A wall can mean many things. It can divide people who want to be united. It can ensure peace and safety by keeping danger at bay. It can enclose people so they are kept under control. The same wall can also stand for all these things to different people simultaneously. Consider that most iconic of…

  By Gal Beckerman

  5 min read
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  Opinion

  Shavuot, When We Became Who We Are

  (JTA) — Rabbinic tradition teaches that when God spoke at Sinai, the world was silenced — birds did not sing, breezes did not rustle leaves in the trees. Out of that profound silence came the word, and were the world silent again, for even an instant, we could hear the everlasting echo of God’s voice….

  By David Wolpe May 27, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  House Forbids Pentagon Girding for Climate Woes

  Migrants fleeing African drought turned back by police as they try to rush the gate to Spanish North African coastal enclave of Melilla, March 22, 2014. / Getty Images In case you missed it: The U.S. House of Representatives voted last Thursday to bar the Pentagon from spending any money to study or prepare for…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 27, 2014 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• 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

  

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  Opinion

  News Quiz: The Pope and Hummus

  Getty Images Herring, hummus and the Pope: Together at last.

  By Lenore Skenazy May 27, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Arab Israelis Increasingly Recognize Jewish State

  Israeli Jewish youths fix a menorah in Jerusalem’s Muslim quarter / Getty Images There’s a received wisdom that in Israel, everyone is polarizing, and that with a right-wing government and stalled peace process, Arab citizens are feeling increasingly antagonistic towards the state. But a new survey suggests that this isn’t the case. There has been…

  By Nathan Jeffay May 27, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  The Jewish Case for Reparations — to Blacks

  The Atlantic correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates In the Hebrew tradition prophets cry out in the wilderness in part because their audience tends to be uninterested in the message. If the people were ready, after all, they wouldn’t need a prophet. “The prophet faces a coalition of callousness and established authority, and undertakes to stop a mighty…

  By Emily L. Hauser May 27, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Reuven Rivlin Called Reform Judaism ‘Idol Worship’

  (JTA) — If Likud Knesset member Reuven Rivlin gets elected next month to succeed President Shimon Peres as Israel’s next president, don’t blame Reform Jewry for withholding its applause. While Rivlin is thought of as an elder statesman and voice of reason within the Likud party, he hasn’t had the kindest words for America’s largest…

  By Ben Sales May 27, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Top Israeli, Saudi Ex-Spy Chiefs in Rare Dialogue

  Israeli and Saudi ex-spy chiefs Amos Yadlin (left), Prince Turki al-Faisal (center) dialogue in Brussels, May 26. Moderator David Ignatius at right. / German Marshall Fund-YouTube screen grab One of the most influential members of the Saudi royal family, former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal, sat down today with former Israeli military intelligence chief Amos…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 27, 2014 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  March of the Living Exploits — Like 9/11 Museum

  March of the Living participants visit Auschwitz in 2009 / Yossi Selliger This year, I made the difficult decision not to join my high school classmates on March of the Living, an organized trip that takes students to Poland’s death camps and then on to Israel. But it wasn’t until I read Meg Bloom Glasser’s…

  By Adam Chanes May 26, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Lewis Wolff Talks the Jewish Side of Moneyball

  Lewis Wolff owns the Oakland Athletics, a team that prides itself on building championship contenders while spending much less money than its competition. After missing out on the playoffs for several years, the A’s returned last year and are off to a great start this year as they are leading their competitive American League West…

  By Raphael Gellar May 26, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Flood of Reports Point to a Warming Earth — But Concern Drops

  May 2014 was one of the most worrisome months in recent memory for the health of the planet’s climate. The month saw a sudden, unexpected increase in the pace of really scary new climate-change studies coming out of scientific research institutes in America and Europe. Some of the studies document the impact of climate change,…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 26, 2014 | 4 min read