In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
King Juan Carlos Gone — Can Sephardic Jews Still Return?
Spain’s King Juan Carlos / Getty Images If Juan Carlos didn’t entirely reconcile Spain and the Sephardic Jews, it wasn’t for lack of trying. The Spanish king announced his abdication this morning, 39 years into a reign that stands both as an argument for monarchy and an argument against it. Lionized for shepherding Spain through…
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Opinion After Brussels Bust, France Nabs ‘Jihad Recruiters’
French police have arrested four people suspected of recruiting would-be jihadist fighters in Paris and southern France, apparently for training and combat in the Syrian civil war, the British edition of the International Business Times reported today. The arrests were announced by French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. They come a day after the announcement on…
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Opinion Israeli Rabbinate Should Learn From Shavuot Heroine
Russian immigrants to Israel / Courtesy of Alona Sibuk Her story is well known. She came from a foreign land where she lived like a princess. Despite a very questionable connection to Judaism, she chose to follow her mother-in-law to Israel. There, she lived in abject poverty, getting by only by taking charity. Even when…
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Opinion Want Authentic Shavuot Meals? Try Fruit, Not Dairy
As a Jewish food educator, I’m often asked for ways to enhance holiday celebrations with authentically themed dishes for the season. What was once a simple plate of apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah becomes a series of prepared desserts featuring these key ingredients. Chanukah gelt can now be acquired with fair trade certification. Vegans…
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Opinion Shavuot Is Holiday That Speaks of Love And Freedom
The contemporary notion of freedom is twisted, at least in Judaism’s eyes. Many moderns feel fettered by — depending on the particulars of their lives — their jobs, finances, parents, children or spouses, and they imagine that cutting whatever bonds they find bothersome will make them free. But freedom isn’t shaking oneself loose of human…
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Opinion Why Is It So Hard To Convert to Judaism?
In February 2013, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue, as fancy and important a place as its name suggests, floated an intriguing idea. In a sermon to his congregation on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Cosgrove urged the Conservative movement, his movement, to become much, much more welcoming to anyone interested in converting to Judaism….
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Opinion The Shaming of Rabbi Barry Starr
Getty Images I don’t know Rabbi Barry Starr personally, but I don’t like how he is being vilified in the media, most recently in an article in The Forward with the lurid headline “When a Good Rabbi Goes Bad.” We still don’t know all the facts in this case, and we’ve already found this man…
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Opinion How Wily Donald Sterling Beat These 5 Investments
Getty Images (Reuters) — Donald Sterling bought the Los Angeles Clippers for 16 million and is set to sell the team for $2 billion. That’s a 16,000% return or a lofty 16% a year. Here’s a look at other investments he could have made at the time, and how much less he would have made….
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Opinion Right Wing Gadfly Group Has Day in Knesset
Im Tirtzu, the right-wing Israeli truth squad best known for bashing the New Israel Fund, allowed itself a victory lap this week after taking credit for an “emergency” gathering in the Knesset on “delegitimization of Israel.” Unfortunately, as with so much else the organization touches, the facts of the case are a bit murky. Im…
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Opinion Agudath Israel Is Wrong About Yeshivat Chovevei Torah
Courtesy of Agudath Israel As I concluded a yearlong course that I have been teaching at a local day school, a student approached me with a concerned look on his face. “What if I don’t know what my Jewish identity is?” I pushed him to say more. “Well, my parents had the Holocaust, but —…
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Opinion Why Is Avigdor Mad at Bibi?
Getty Images Since Israel’s last general election a year and a half ago, the country’s two most powerful party leaders have exhibited surprisingly good relations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman united their parties, Likud and Yisrael Beytenu, before the election and have surprised observers by keeping them together and getting along…
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