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
Harvard Group Was Right To Visit Arafat’s Grave
Harvard students pose at Yasser Arafat’s grave. / Twitter Last Monday, the Harvard College Israel Trek went to the Muqata’a, the offices of the Palestinian government, in Ramallah. While they were there, the group took a picture with Yasser Arafat’s grave, which was inevitably Tweeted by the group’s tour guide. The photo was picked up…
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Opinion Embracing ‘Otherhood’
‘Would you date a non-Jewish guy?” Sarah asked over dinner a few weeks ago. She’d started dating non-Jewish men in her late 30s. “No,” I said. “I want to marry a Jewish man.” “I understand,” Sarah said. “I always thought I would, too. But I’m 41 and I just want to give it everything I’ve…
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Opinion The Spiritual Advisor Students Need (Hint: It’s Not Campus Rabbi Anymore)
The Jewish world is still aflutter with the recent results of the Pew Research Center’s study of American Jews, which speaks of declining Jewish identification among young people. While much of the institutional world is fretting about how to reach Jews who don’t identify with being Jewish, Hampshire College, a secular institution in Amherst, Mass.,…
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Opinion Making Ritual for Ourselves
Take the ritual of sitting shiva, for example. It is a cluster of touching and cryptic customs. Try parsing those customs and you will find yourself at a loss for words — or, if you’ve bothered to read the “explanatory” literature, inundated by a surfeit of words, this interpretation being run over by that, one…
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Opinion How a Flight Was Lost in the ‘Twilight Zone’
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has now been missing for two weeks, and there’s still no sign of the aircraft and no real clue to the mystery of its disappearance. This clip might not dispel the fog of unknown, but it’s worth a look if only to widen the lens of possibility. It’s a classic “Twilight…
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Opinion Why Recognizing Israel as ‘Jewish State’ Is Key to Peace
It often happens in sensitive negotiations between longtime adversaries. At a certain point they start talking in code. Silent looks, secret words, raised eyebrows — messages only they understand. The baffled mediator stops everything and says, “Hey, what’s going on between you two?” That’s how you know the most serious issues are finally on the…
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Opinion Could ‘Framework’ Offer Elusive Breakthrough as Peace Talks Sputter?
Nobody, it’s fair to say, ever went broke betting against the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. You could put even money on a sudden meltdown, a theatrical explosion or a quiet fade-out. Just don’t bet on success. Nobody wins. Right now the heavy betting is on how soon the Kerry initiative will collapse and who’ll be blamed….
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Opinion Anne Heyman Supporters Redouble Rwanda Effort
Anne Heyman walks with Rwanda President Paul Kagame at a graduation ceremony at Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. / Courtesy of Agahozo-Shalom More than a month after the untimely death of Anne Heyman, friends and supporters say they are dedicated to ensuring the success of her unique Rwanda youth village. “We’re all tremendously saddened but there is…
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Opinion Bibi to Watchdog: Bury African Migrants Report
African asylum-seekers protest outside Israel’s Holot detention center in the Negev, February 2014 / Getty Images Prime Minister Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Harel Locker, has asked the state’s mismanagement watchdog to bury an upcoming report on the treatment of African migrants and asylum seekers, on grounds that publication would harm Israel’s international relations and national…
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Opinion Did Israeli Conversions Just Get a Lot Easier?
Immigrants from the former Soviet Union arrive in Israel. / Getty Images Did you hear about the latest coup for the Reform and Conservative movements in the Knesset? A new piece of legislation that passed the Law Committee today and is ready for voting in a few weeks will apparently bring closer a day when…
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Opinion ‘Princeton Mom’ Susan Patton Is Back — and She’s Not All Wrong
Princeton Mom Susan Patton is back. The Jewish mother of two boys, Princetonians natch, just came out with a book called “Marry Smart” in which she expands her letter that launched a thousand blog posts about why young women should find husbands in college into a 200-page treatise. In the book, she reups her original…
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