Opinion

• Opinion

  Who Are America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis? Tell Us!

  “Adventure Rabbi” Jamie Korngold leads a Passover seminar in Moab, Utah. Photo by Jeff Finkelstein Last year, this project began with a hunch and a hope. The hunch was that amidst the depressing reports of the decline in organizational Judaism, synagogues struggling to stay afloat, rabbinical seminaries trying to stay relevant, and young Jews turning…

  By Jane Eisner

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Protect the Children, Mayor de Blasio

  Regulating the ritual practice of a small number of New Yorkers is hardly the top priority of the city’s new mayor, nor should it be, not with the myriad of challenges facing Bill de Blasio, who is slowly remaking city government after 12 years of Michael Bloomberg’s highly successful, though occasionally problematic tenure. But neither…

  Feb 6, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  John Kerry, Modern-Day Haman?

  Secretary of State John Kerry and Haman / GettyImages/HipsterJew.com First he was described as “obsessive” and “messianic” by Israel’s defense minister Moshe Yaalon. Then he was accused by Israel’s intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz of “holding a gun to Israel’s head”. And now, Secretary of State John Kerry faces a new barrage of criticism coming from…

  By Nathan Guttman Feb 5, 2014 | 2 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 I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• Dan Perry Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

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  Opinion

  Why All of France Should Shiver When Demonstrators Shout: ‘Jews Out’

  Eighty years ago, on February 6, 1934, the French Republic had a near-death experience. On that wintry evening, tens of thousands of protestors, mostly young and mostly male, massed along the boulevards of Paris. Their aim was to bring down the Republic—or, as they called it, “la gueuse” or whore. In the eyes of contemporaries,…

  By Robert Zaretsky Feb 5, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Jerusalem Protest Breeds Color War, Not Civil War

  Settler youth bear signs reading “Girls of Israel for the nation of Israel,” “A king’s daughter doesn’t date a non-Jew,” and “No more assimilation!” / Elisheva Goldberg Last night in Jerusalem, Arabs and Jews (well, mostly Jews) got together at an event called “Pashut Sharim” or “Just Singing,” a four-year-old initiative funded primarily by Hillel…

  By Elisheva Goldberg Feb 4, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  News Quiz: Natalie Portman, Jerry Seinfeld and Russell Crowe

  Jerry Seinfeld, Natalie Portman’s husband and a bevy of Swedish supermodels, to boot? What kind of Jewish News Quiz is this? The pandering kind! And why not? By the way, Russell Crowe is in here, too.

  By Lenore Skenazy Feb 4, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  AIPAC Lost Iran Sanctions Battle — Not War

  Sanctions bill sponsor Sen. Robert Menendez addresses AIPAC annual policy conference, Washington Convention Center, March 5, 2013 / Getty Images Efforts to pass a new Iran sanctions bill have not only stalled in the Senate, but appear to be slowing even in the House. Perhaps predictably, given the focus on AIPAC as the primary driver…

  By Brent E. Sasley Feb 4, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Forget Tefillin — Orthodox Women Need Empowerment in Daily Lives

  (Haaretz) — It never ceases to amaze us, the Orthodox plebeians, how quickly hordes of bloggers can skew matters out of proportion. Skim the blogs and you will discover the din of rumbling male voices expounding on Orthodox gender roles. Perhaps the voices are predominantly male because men are usually better versed than us women in…

  By Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt Feb 4, 2014 | 8 min read
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  Opinion

  Academic Freedom — Not Boycotts — Should Be Focus of Israel Academia Debate

  The uproar in the Jewish community over the American Studies Association’s vote to boycott Israeli universities has largely overlooked one point: Are we, who oppose these sorts of boycotts, truly committed to academic freedom for people of all views on the Israel-Palestine conflict? Of course there are reasons, aside from academic freedom, to oppose the…

  By Samuel Fleischacker Feb 4, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Remembering Gordon Zacks, Jewish GOP Leader

  Anyone can change the course of events, especially when they see injustice. That was the mantra of Gordon Zacks, who died Saturday in the Columbus, Ohio area at the age of 80. A founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition and an unofficial adviser to George H.W. Bush, Gordon wrote the book on character, courage and…

  By Jackie Jacobs Feb 3, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Intermarriage Is Fact of Jewish Life — Not Disease

  (JTA) — All in favor of a strong Jewish future say “aye.” On that core question, there is resounding unanimity, but there have been some unnecessarily polarizing articles in the Jewish press suggesting that we have to select either endogamy or outreach. Nonsense! Such binary thinking reduces a multi-dimensional and complex reality to a false…

  By Rick Jacobs Feb 3, 2014 | 3 min read