Opinion

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  Seeking Salvation? Dial 1 for Baruch Goldstein

  Right-wing activist Baruch Marzel wipes his eyes at the grave of Baruch Goldstein. / Getty Images These days, you can order almost anything by phone. Books. Movies. Food. Sex. Salvation? Sure, why not. Salvation. And not just any old kind, but the kind you can only get by virtue of an appeal to one of…

  By Sigal Samuel

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  A GOP Plan to Save the Jews: Buy White House

  Miriam and Sheldon Adelson address Shimon Peres’s Israel Presidential Conference, Jerusalem, May 2008 / Getty Images Amid mounting alarm that anti-Semitism is on the rise in key spots around the globe — and fears that Israel could be a prime target — a prominent Republican group has come up with a unique approach to fighting…

  By J.J. Goldberg Mar 25, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Partnership Minyan and the Egalitarian Threat

  Mainstream Orthodoxy has been taking pains to publicize its disapproval of partnership minyanim, Orthodox prayer groups where women lead some of the prayers and read from the Torah. Yeshiva University threatened to withhold ordination of a graduating student who held a partnership minyan in his home. Large, leading Orthodox institutions like the Orthodox Union and…

  By Aurora Mendelsohn Mar 25, 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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  A New Relationship Between Israel and the Diaspora

  The relationship of the State of Israel with Diaspora Jewry is undergoing a historic shift that is at once inevitable and surprising, a healthy and welcome calibration but one fraught with worrying consequences. No longer is Israel the poor, scrappy cousin dependent on a financial lifeline from its wealthier relatives in exile — a lifeline…

  Mar 25, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Knesset Liberals Block New Settlement Funding

  New outpost goes up at Eli, Judea-West Bank, February 2008, courtesy of the World Zionist Organization / Getty Images The settler movement and its right-wing Knesset allies are finding they’ve got their hands full swatting back demands from the center and left — an unusual alliance of Labor, Yesh Atid and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah —…

  By J.J. Goldberg Mar 25, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  News Quiz: Martin Scorsese, Ritz Crackers and James Deen

  From Jewish porn stars to bacon-flavored Kosher treats to Martin Scorsese’s new, “Jewish” movie, the world is becoming a very eclectic place. Or at least this quiz is.

  By Lenore Skenazy Mar 24, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel Makes Some Headway at U.N.

  As someone who has protested outside the gates of the United Nations on several occasions, I find it astonishing to now witness some heartening developments at the world body. Contrary to the dire predictions that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, settlement growth, and systemic discrimination at the United Nations are leading to Israel’s increasing…

  By Joseph Potasnik Mar 24, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Bernie Madoff Didn’t Betray ‘The Jews’

  Bernie Madoff / Eli Valley In an interview from prison last week, Bernie Madoff insisted, “I don’t feel that I betrayed the Jews, I betrayed people.” I’m no psychologist, and it’s possible he was just trying to salvage any scrap of social and cultural connection as he languishes alone. But taking his words at face…

  By Eli Valley Mar 24, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Bernie Madoff, Our Convenient Scapegoat

  You couldn’t dream up a better villain. Bernie Madoff, the man we all love to hate, is back in the news, opining from his jail cell on matters political, ethical and financial, this time in an interview with Politico magazine. Madoff won’t win many friends with this new interview, and may even gain a few…

  By Jay Michaelson Mar 24, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Netanyahu’s Fake Jerusalem Stalls Peace

  Benjamin Netanyahu / Getty Images Last week we learned that Israel’s government is advancing plans for another 2,269 settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; 144 are planned for the Jerusalem settlement neighborhood of Har Homa. Discussion surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict tends to focus on minutiae, or the broad sweep of an entire…

  By Emily L. Hauser Mar 24, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  A Shabbat Lesson From Doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 — or Not

  (Haaretz) — While the world anxiously awaits information regarding the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a perplexing Jewish angle to the story has emerged. In short, a Jewish traveler who is not Sabbath observant was booking a flight through a Jewish travel agent. The traveler planned on flying on Flight 370 on the…

  By Eliyahu Fink Mar 24, 2014 | 4 min read