Opinion

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  The Irony of Celebrating Passover in Egypt

  An Egyptian policeman in front of the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt. / Haaretz In early April 2012, two friends and I visited the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue in downtown Cairo to observe the first night of Passover in Egypt. The irony was too obvious to point out, and so we didn’t. When we arrived,…

  By Jake Meth

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Ukrainian Revolution’s Unlikely Street-Fighting Rabbi

  The following interview is with Natan Khazin, commander of a Jewish squadron of fighters in the Ukrainian revolution that took place in Kiev’s Maidan, or central square. It aired on March 20 on Espreso TV, a popular Ukrainian Internet television station and was the first time that Khazin disclosed his identity in public. Khazin was…

  By David E. Fishman Apr 7, 2014 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Peering Into the Minds of the Climate Doubters

  It’s a truism of science that major, transformative events provide unique opportunities to gather data. Seismologists wait for earthquakes to measure tectonic movement. Research meteorologists risk their lives chasing tornadoes to learn their mysteries. Zoologists swing into action during mating season (of the animals, silly). Climate study can work in much the same way. Take…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 7, 2014 | 4 min read

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

  

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• 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

  New Generation of Rabbis Sees and Speaks Israel

  Breaking the Silence Despite the concept of the occupation being an oddly contested one in some American political circles of late, there is much to decry about Israel’s military rule over the Palestinians in the West Bank. And while some security-minded observers focus on the need for an IDF military presence to widen Israel’s narrow…

  By Mira Sucharov Apr 7, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Free Pollard. It’s the Left-Wing Thing To Do.

  Getty Images As the debate over whether to pardon convicted spy Jonathan Pollard continues, the most vocal support for his release is coming from the conservative side: AIPAC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, most recently, families of Israeli terror victims. Meanwhile, outlets like the Forward are arguing against the release, unwilling to send the…

  By Anna Momigliano Apr 6, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  This Oped Will Not Tell You How Great We Are

  Let’s begin with a truth: Much of what gets published by and in the Jewish communal world is pure self-promotion. Look around, and you’ll see articles, comments, essays, posts and tweets whose chief purpose is to extol the virtues of this or that Jewish communal organization or program. Most authors of this material don’t even…

  By Ken Gordon Apr 6, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  6 Things To Remember on Quebec Election Day

  On Monday, citizens of Quebec will go to the polls to vote for a new provincial government. Two main players are facing off in this year’s elections: the Parti Quebecois (PQ), Quebec’s nationalist party currently ruling as a minority government and led by Premier Pauline Marois, against Quebec’s Liberal Party, ousted from power in 2012…

  By Anne Cohen Apr 6, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Rightist Foils Bid to Open Books of Settlement Unit

  Tzufim settlement outpost, western Samaria, October 2012 / Getty Images The chairman of the Knesset’s law and legislation committee on Thursday postponed, for the second time in two weeks, a scheduled vote on a bill requiring transparency in government funding of West Bank settlements. The bill has majority support in the committee, whose membership mirrors…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 6, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Year of Magical Thinking

  “That’s the good thing about science: It’s true whether or not you believe in it. That’s why it works.” So said Neil deGrasse Tyson, joining Bill Nye as players in a strange cultural moment: the resurgence of magical thinking. Magical thinking, you’ll recall, refers to the misattribution of causality: The black cat meowed, and then…

  By Jay Michaelson Apr 5, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  On Yarzeit, Recall King’s Last Battle: Labor Rights

  Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, 1968. Left: April 3. Right: April 4. Today is the 46th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Below is the editorial I wrote for the Forward seven years ago, on what would have been his 78th birthday — the moment when the years since his death…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 4, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Nate Silver Should Listen to Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Nate Silver has pissed a lot of people off lately. In an interview with New York Magazine about the then upcoming launch of the new FiveThirtyEight site, the data-journalism enthusiast took a jab at traditional opinion journalism. He told the interviewer that pundits might “have really high IQs, but they don’t have any discipline in…

  By Elissa Strauss Apr 4, 2014 | 3 min read