Opinion

• Opinion

  How To Save $163K on Jewish Day School Bill

  Getty Images (JTA) — When the parents of three school-age children sat down with their financial adviser to try to figure out how to minimize their anticipated private school tuition bill of $810,000 through high school, they came up with a plan that shrunk the bill by $163,000. How’d they do it? Well, mostly by pre-paying,…

  By Uriel Heilman

  < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Gaza War ‘Unintended’? Nope, Hamas Is Sworn to Destroy Israel

  I feel the need to respond to a recent column by J.J. Goldberg, “How Politics and Lies Triggered an Unintended War in Gaza.” There are a series of false assumptions littered throughout the piece, which unfortunately lead Goldberg to imagine a conspiracy theory that does not exist. Firstly, Goldberg quotes an Israeli military official referring…

  By Gil Lainer Jul 13, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Feeling ‘Chosen’ in Alabama

  Anne and Sigal’s flight path. Next stop, Birmingham. We landed in Birmingham and were hit by a wall of heat — and a Bible. The taxi driver who ushered us from the airport to our hotel keeps a copy of the Holy Bible on his passenger seat. Welcome to Alabama. That was tame compared to…

  By Anne Cohen and Sigal Samuel Jul 12, 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

• Opinion

  What Does 192-to-1 Death Toll Say About Gaza War?

  (JTA) — The ratio of Palestinian deaths to Israeli deaths is one of the most important measurements of the Gaza war. The toll clearly disproportionate — as of this writing, about 192:1. There are a few different ways to look at this rate. Critics of Israel herald the lopsided figure as evidence of Israeli barbarism….

  By Uriel Heilman Jul 12, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Where’s Jewish Fury Over Tariq Abu Khdeir Beating?

  Tariq Abu Khdeir is hugged by his mother following his beating in East Jerusalem / Getty Images I have no idea what Tariq Khdeir was doing on the day he was savagely beaten. I have no idea if — like the American high school student in my own home – Tariq woke up late and…

  By Emily L. Hauser Jul 11, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Jews in Israel and Diaspora Share Fate

  This is one of those times when the gulf between we American Jews and our Israeli kin seems wider than the ocean. As sirens blare and rockets whoosh through the sky there, we here can only empathize, support and, for those so inclined, pray. We can hope for a speedy end to the attacks and…

  Jul 11, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  8 Best Jewish Road Trips

  Editor’s Note: As part of the Forward’s Our Promised Lands project, which will cover 50 states in 50 weeks, Anne Cohen and Sigal Samuel are setting out on a Southern adventure. Over the next eight days, they will travel to Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, so keep an eye on this blog to follow their…

  By Anne Cohen and Sigal Samuel Jul 11, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How the Gaza War Started — and How It Can End

  The Forward has my latest column on how Israel and Hamas stumbled through a series of accidents and misunderstandings into a war nobody wanted. Because it’s written for print (unlike this blog) it has limits on length, and even though the paper generously lets me run way over my limit every week, there are inevitably…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 10, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Trace Kidnap-Murders Back to Israeli Settlements

  Palestinian families leave their houses following Israeli air strikes in Gaza City / Getty Images When I was 14 years old, I remember my father, Edgar M. Bronfman, publicly calling for the end of Israeli settlement building. It was 1977, the very beginning of the implementation of the Drobles Plan, and only a few thousand…

  By Adam Bronfman Jul 10, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  In Tel Aviv, Keep Calm and Mind the Rockets

  Israeli family seeks shelter in parking garage as rocket sirens blare. / Getty Images (JTA) — “In Tel Aviv, we expect the skies clear with a temperature of 32 degrees,” our pilot said upon taking off from Milan’s airport Wednesday, with no discernible hint of irony. The thermometer in Tel Aviv did fill up — 32…

  By Ben Sales Jul 10, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  How Politics and Lies Triggered an Unintended War in Gaza

  In the flood of angry words that poured out of Israel and Gaza during a week of spiraling violence, few statements were more blunt, or more telling, than this throwaway line by the chief spokesman of the Israeli military, Brigadier General Moti Almoz, speaking July 8 on Army Radio’s morning show: “We have been instructed…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 10, 2014 | 5 min read