Opinion

• Opinion

  Obamacare Adds 9 Million Newly Insured: Study

  Last minute Obamacare signup, Miami, March 31 / Getty Images About 9.3 million more Americans had health insurance in late March 2014 than in September 2013, according to a survey released Tuesday by the RAND Corporation, the respected centrist think tank. Nearly all the new enrollments are a direct result of Obamacare. As a result,…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  I Miss J&R Already

  Shopping at J&R Music World always felt weirdly haimish. Despite the fact that the electronics retailer owned an entire (and very lucrative) block in Lower Manhattan, there was something endearingly shabby about the chainlet founded by Israeli immigrants Joe and Rachelle Friedman (J. and R., get it?) as a basement record store in 1971. On…

  By Michael Kaminer Apr 10, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  No, Brandeis Isn’t ‘Silencing’ Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Anti-Islam activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali / Getty Images To begin with, let’s clear up a few details of the flap over Brandeis University’s decision to revoke an invitation for Ayaan Hirsi Ali to receive an honorary degree and address the graduating class: Hirsi Ali is emphatically not being “silenced,” as she and her defenders claim….

  By Ali Gharib Apr 10, 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

  What I Learned From Passover in Poland

  A Passover Seder in prewar Europe. Every other spring, the Zionist-Socialist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair takes its bogrim, the group of usually 16-year-old leaders from around the world, on a weeklong trip to Poland. When it was my turn in 2006, the dates fell on Passover. The nine of us from Vienna boarded a night…

  By Anna Goldenberg Apr 10, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Annexation Was Always Naftali Bennett’s Plan A

  Israel’s Naftali Bennett / Getty Images On Wednesday, the multi-portfolioed Naftali Bennett – Israel’s Minister of the Economy, Minister of Religious Services, and Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs – sent a letter to his Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. In that letter, according to Israeli Army Radio, Bennett called for a cabinet meeting “to begin…

  By Emily L. Hauser Apr 10, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How You Would Spend Jewish Charity Billions

  Do the spending priorities of American Jewish charities match those of American Jews? Judging by an informal but highly revealing poll of Forward readers, the answer is no. As in NO. As in: spend more money on education, culture and community, about the same on general advocacy and much less on Israel. The Forward’s poll…

  Apr 10, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Two Moroccan Bangles Bind Generations

  Photo by Martyna Starosta Editor’s note: Whether it’s a silver kiddush cup, a siddur that survived the Holocaust, or a wedding ring — heirlooms tell the story of our families. Please share your Jewish heirloom stories with us below by April 25. Several submissions will be featured in the Forward in May. In my family,…

  By Anne Cohen Apr 10, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  My Passover Seders from Warsaw to Disneyworld

  The author with her parents a few weeks before the Passover Seder / Courtesy of Masha Leon I don’t remember having a Pesach Seder as a child in pre-war Warsaw. There must have been matzo. But what I do recall is my parents’ presentation of the Exodus saga as an exemplar of liberation, of courage,…

  By Masha Leon Apr 9, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  7 Coolest Haggadahs for Your Passover Seder

  1. The world’s oldest illuminated Haggadah This 14th century Haggadah is the earliest known Ashkenazi attempt to artistically depict the story of Passover. It’s a pretty creative retelling of the story, mainly because the people depicted in the story have the heads of animals — hence the manuscript’s title, “The Bird’s Head Haggadah.” This is…

  By Michael Kaplan Apr 9, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How China’s Lost Jews Celebrate Passover

  Tsuri (Heng) Shi, far left, with Michael Freund, right, and Kaifeng Jews. / Shavei Israel A new Passover destination is being added to the maps this year. Those bored of celebrating the holiday in Florida or Israel can now head to Kaifeng, a city of four million in China’s central Honan province. For the first…

  By Anna Goldenberg Apr 9, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Taking Extreme Steps To Banish Hametz Misses Point of Pesach

  Our definition of hametz is expanding. The pun is intentional. But here’s my point: Many Jews go to ridiculous extremes to redefine and root out hametz for Passover, losing sight of the simplicity and subtlety of this extraordinary holiday. Hametz is narrowly defined as leavened bread, and Jews are not supposed to own, eat or…

  By Jane Eisner Apr 9, 2014 | 2 min read