Opinion

• Opinion

  Alan Webber Wants To Be Governor of New Mexico

  In 1996, Alan Webber launched Fast Company magazine as a hybrid of “Rolling Stone and The Wall Street Journal.” The same energy hovers around his recently announced run for Governor of New Mexico. A Tweet kicked off the campaign; a few days later, Webber confirmed the run with a simple “Yeah” in a Santa Fe…

  By Michael Kaminer

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Intermarriage Rorschach Test

  Is intermarriage good for the Jews? This is not a trick question. It’s the new Rorschach test in determining how you think about the Jewish future. If you believe, as does the leadership of the Reform movement, that intermarriage is a fact of modern life, an inevitability in an open society where Jews are —…

  Jan 16, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Are Social Conservatives Finally Growing Up?

  Sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Before I was born, these were the frontiers of the social revolutions sweeping America. The favorite moments of the Boomer generation — Woodstock, the Summer of Love — combined all three. And while the political revolution the Beatles sang about never quite came to pass, the Sixties’ changes in…

  By Jay Michaelson Jan 16, 2014 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson Being Jewish in America today feels like walking multiple tightropes at once

  

• Rob Eshman A precise, Chekhovian logic guided Israel’s strike on Iran — but chaos could come next

  

• Nora Berman Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was never going to help Palestinians

  

• Dan Perry Celebrating my daughter’s birthday in a bomb shelter, as missiles struck Tel Aviv

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s latest move makes Mahmoud Khalil a Joseph for our times

  

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  Opinion

  In Jewish Italy, ‘Diaspora’ Is a Dirty Word

  The former Jewish ghetto on the banks of the Tiber in central Rome. / Getty Images Should Jews living in the Diaspora feel ashamed of being, well, Jews living in the Diaspora? A growing number of European Jews, it seems, believe the answer is yes. But when did we start buying into this narrative? I’ve…

  By Anna Momigliano Jan 15, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Ukraine ‘Euromaidan’ Protests Must Shun Anti-Semitism

  (JTA) — From the moment of its spontaneous combustion on Nov. 21 and for weeks thereafter, the mass pro-European Union encampment in the center of Kiev appeared to represent the epitome of 21st-century European values. The activities of the vast, multi-ethnic crowd in Maidan Square quickly came to be called Euromaidan and celebrated themes of…

  By Oleksandr Feldman Jan 15, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Rose Fostanes, Israeli X-Factor’s Unlikely Winner

  It was one of the most moving moments I can remember in Israeli television. Last night, Israel’s most popular human export crowned the country’s most adored import. Supermodel Bar Refaeli, whose career took off in foreign fashion centers, delivered the best imaginable news to a woman who unexpectedly found fame far from home, in Israel….

  By Nathan Jeffay Jan 15, 2014 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  After ‘Selma,’ Asking How Many of Us in ‘We Shall Overcome’

  How big of a “We” were the Jews in “We shall overcome”? Since the nationwide release of “Selma” a week before the national holiday commemorating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., I have wondered about the extent of Jewish participation in the civil rights movement. Was it just the Selma marches? Was our support also…

  By Edmon J. Rodman Jan 15, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Polar Vortex Is Nothing To Laugh At

  The new year elevated our national conversation to new heights of unreality, if that’s possible. Democrats in Washington presented 2014 as the year we tackle economic inequality, Congress permitting, which it won’t. Progressives fought to ensure we don’t forget immigration reform, gun safety and protecting abortion rights. Conservatives hoped to stand firm on budgets and…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 15, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  It’s Jew vs. Jew as Iran Sanctions Fight Gets Ugly

  Sanctions bill sponsor Sen. Robert Menendez addresses AIPAC annual policy conference, Washington Convention Center, March 5, 2013 / Getty Images The debate over the Menendez-Kirk Iran sanctions bill in the Senate just keeps getting uglier. And now the nastiness is seeping – make that pouring – right into the heart of the Jewish community, as…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 15, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  What York University Can Learn From Israel

  Aerial photo of York University, Toronto, in 2010. / City of Toronto The ongoing dilemma of accommodating religious beliefs in a liberal and multicultural society is again glaringly apparent. News reports reveal that at York University, a large, publicly-funded post-secondary institution in Toronto, a student in a sociology course requested that he be exempt from…

  By Mira Sucharov Jan 14, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Scarlett Johansson: ‘No Guilt’ About SodaStream

  Scarlett Johansson poses for photographers on November 10, 2013, in Rome. / Getty Images Scarlett Johansson signed on this week as the new “global ambassador” for the West Bank-based Israeli company SodaStream and will be featured in the company’s 2014 Super Bowl advertisement. For SodaStream, this deal makes sense: Johansson is remarkably sexy, eco-friendly, loves…

  By Elisheva Goldberg Jan 14, 2014 | 3 min read