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
When Is BDS Not BDS? A Vassar Passover Tale
Several alert readers are unhappy with my post last week on the nasty BDS debate at Vassar College. Among other things, I referred readers to a post by the conservative legal scholar William Jacobson on his LegalInsurrection.com blog, providing extensive documentation on the background to the clash. Critics claim I wrongly soft-pedaled the behavior of…
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Opinion Hillel Balances Donors and Students on Campus
Jay Michaelson’s recent column in these pages, “Only One Way to Change Hillel: Leave,” reveals a number of damaging yet popular misconceptions about the Hillel world and the role of donors in dictating the content of our programming. Jay, since you referred to my own recent essay here, “The Hillel Kids are All Right,” I’m…
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Opinion Groveling Season, Las Vegas to Jerusalem to D.C.
Las Vegas, March 29: Chris Christie addresses Republican Jewish Coalition. Sheldon Adelson listens. / Getty Images With all the apologies flying back and forth these days, you might almost think Yom Kippur came early this year. In fact, tradition teaches that there’s a deep spiritual bond between Yom Kippur, which is six months from now,…
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Opinion Does Takeover of Crimea Mean Messiah Is Near?
Getty Images Most of the Jewish and general world is fuming over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s takeover of Crimea. But some ultra-Orthodox Jews are positively delighted by it. This week, Grand Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch, the vice president of Israel’s Rabbinical Court and a descendant of the revered rabbi known as the Vilna Gaon (aka “Genius…
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Opinion Lesson of Chris Christie and Ehud Olmert Scandals
The state of New Jersey prides itself on its “long and strong relationship” with the state of Israel. The feeling is often mutual. But this is getting ridiculous. Both states are sweating through major political corruption scandals reaching to the very highest ranks of government. In both cases, the central figure in the scandal saw…
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Opinion For a Keystone XL Pipeline Grand Bargain
It’s time for a grand bargain on the Keystone XL pipeline. For years, President Obama has been stuck in between a rock and a tar sand. Environmentalists have made the pipeline, which would connect tar sands in Canada with refineries in the United States, a cause célèbre. To them, it is a defining moment for…
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Opinion Praying Alone
Be careful what you wish for. My friend Sharon Cohen has introduced me to a rapidly growing phenomenon — to wit, streaming services. For those of you who may be technological laggards, a streaming service is a live broadcast of a worship service. Sit back, relax, and you can watch the Friday night service from…
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Letters Dialogue, Not Diktat
A column from March 21, “Only One Way To Change Hillel: Leave,” contains some gross inaccuracies that need to be corrected. It suggests that, in 2009, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco issued a “gag rule” regarding Israel-Palestine, and that we did so because “two major California-based foundations said that if one dime of…
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Opinion Jews for Jesus Use Pew ‘34%’ in Ad
The Messianic Jewish movement’s new marketing tool / Hody Nemes If you went searching for a mainstream Jewish organization that welcomed the findings of the Pew study of American Jews, which showed declining levels of Jewish affiliation and high levels of intermarriage, you’d be hard pressed to find one. But so-called Jews for Jesus found…
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Opinion Vassar’s Israel Debate Takes ‘Raw’ Racial Turn
An ugly confrontation took place at Vassar College March 3 between pro-BDS activists and a group of students and professors who were about to embark on a college-sponsored trip to study water issues in Israel and Palestine. A college forum convened to discuss the tensions surrounding the trip – and more specifically, the protests against…
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Opinion ‘Parenthood’ Reveals Enduring Value of Brotherly (or Sisterly) Love
If you don’t watch the NBC show “Parenthood,” you should. It can make a grown man cry. Or maybe I just know especially sensitive men. Either way, it is the most poignant and sincere portrayal of family life I have seen in a very long time. The show follows the goings-on of the three generations…
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