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
Brandeis Shouldn’t Cut Ties to Palestinian University
Sari Nusseibeh in his office at Al-Quds university / Haaretz Open Letter to Brandeis President Dear President Lawrence: By this letter I am resigning from the advisory board of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis. While I appreciate that you were willing to reappoint me for another term, I do…
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Opinion Why Jerusalem Day Is One Big Lie
(Haaretz) — Jerusalem Day, we’re told, celebrates the reunification of Israel’s eternal capital, symbolizing “the continued historical connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem.” It’s a moment to remember that, as Prime Minister Netanyahu once said, “Israel without Jerusalem is like a body without a heart.” So we’re told, and so the vast majority of…
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Opinion How Is This Wall Different? Pope Francis Cements an Icon
A wall can mean many things. It can divide people who want to be united. It can ensure peace and safety by keeping danger at bay. It can enclose people so they are kept under control. The same wall can also stand for all these things to different people simultaneously. Consider that most iconic of…
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Opinion Shavuot, When We Became Who We Are
(JTA) — Rabbinic tradition teaches that when God spoke at Sinai, the world was silenced — birds did not sing, breezes did not rustle leaves in the trees. Out of that profound silence came the word, and were the world silent again, for even an instant, we could hear the everlasting echo of God’s voice….
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Opinion House Forbids Pentagon Girding for Climate Woes
Migrants fleeing African drought turned back by police as they try to rush the gate to Spanish North African coastal enclave of Melilla, March 22, 2014. / Getty Images In case you missed it: The U.S. House of Representatives voted last Thursday to bar the Pentagon from spending any money to study or prepare for…
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Opinion News Quiz: The Pope and Hummus
Getty Images Herring, hummus and the Pope: Together at last.
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Opinion Arab Israelis Increasingly Recognize Jewish State
Israeli Jewish youths fix a menorah in Jerusalem’s Muslim quarter / Getty Images There’s a received wisdom that in Israel, everyone is polarizing, and that with a right-wing government and stalled peace process, Arab citizens are feeling increasingly antagonistic towards the state. But a new survey suggests that this isn’t the case. There has been…
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Opinion The Jewish Case for Reparations — to Blacks
The Atlantic correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates In the Hebrew tradition prophets cry out in the wilderness in part because their audience tends to be uninterested in the message. If the people were ready, after all, they wouldn’t need a prophet. “The prophet faces a coalition of callousness and established authority, and undertakes to stop a mighty…
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Opinion Reuven Rivlin Called Reform Judaism ‘Idol Worship’
(JTA) — If Likud Knesset member Reuven Rivlin gets elected next month to succeed President Shimon Peres as Israel’s next president, don’t blame Reform Jewry for withholding its applause. While Rivlin is thought of as an elder statesman and voice of reason within the Likud party, he hasn’t had the kindest words for America’s largest…
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Opinion Top Israeli, Saudi Ex-Spy Chiefs in Rare Dialogue
Israeli and Saudi ex-spy chiefs Amos Yadlin (left), Prince Turki al-Faisal (center) dialogue in Brussels, May 26. Moderator David Ignatius at right. / German Marshall Fund-YouTube screen grab One of the most influential members of the Saudi royal family, former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal, sat down today with former Israeli military intelligence chief Amos…
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Opinion March of the Living Exploits — Like 9/11 Museum
March of the Living participants visit Auschwitz in 2009 / Yossi Selliger This year, I made the difficult decision not to join my high school classmates on March of the Living, an organized trip that takes students to Poland’s death camps and then on to Israel. But it wasn’t until I read Meg Bloom Glasser’s…
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