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
The One Move That Might Save Mideast Peace Talks
Whatever else might come of Secretary of State John Kerry’s tottering Middle East peace effort, it will leave behind an intellectual legacy in the form of a new addition to the lexicon of high-stakes diplomacy: “Poof.” That’s the word that the secretary interjected into his April 8 Senate testimony, while narrating the missteps that led…
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Opinion Should I Die for Passover?
Photo credit: Getty Images This week is prime time for Passover shopping and cleaning. But in Jerusalem, hundreds of people will be engaged in a very different type of preparation for the festival — witnessing the slaughter of a lamb, just like in the olden days. The Seder has its origins in ancient times, when…
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Opinion What The Forward’s Jewish Charity Poll Teaches
Jewish charity goes largely to Israel-related groups. Our readers think that’s a bad idea. Last week, as part of our ongoing investigation into Jewish charity finances, we asked you how you thought Jewish charitable dollars should be spent. The results, embedded below, suggest that Forward respondents think that education-related Jewish charities should get the largest…
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Opinion The Death of a Soviet Jewry Prophet
On the morning of May 1, 1964 — almost exactly 50 years ago — an unusual sight greeted anyone walking along 67th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. A thousand young men and women in two neat rows, dressed like they were heading off to synagogue, the boys in skinny black ties, the girls in…
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Opinion Obamacare Adds 9 Million Newly Insured: Study
Last minute Obamacare signup, Miami, March 31 / Getty Images About 9.3 million more Americans had health insurance in late March 2014 than in September 2013, according to a survey released Tuesday by the RAND Corporation, the respected centrist think tank. Nearly all the new enrollments are a direct result of Obamacare. As a result,…
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Opinion I Miss J&R Already
Shopping at J&R Music World always felt weirdly haimish. Despite the fact that the electronics retailer owned an entire (and very lucrative) block in Lower Manhattan, there was something endearingly shabby about the chainlet founded by Israeli immigrants Joe and Rachelle Friedman (J. and R., get it?) as a basement record store in 1971. On…
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Opinion No, Brandeis Isn’t ‘Silencing’ Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Anti-Islam activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali / Getty Images To begin with, let’s clear up a few details of the flap over Brandeis University’s decision to revoke an invitation for Ayaan Hirsi Ali to receive an honorary degree and address the graduating class: Hirsi Ali is emphatically not being “silenced,” as she and her defenders claim….
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Opinion What I Learned From Passover in Poland
A Passover Seder in prewar Europe. Every other spring, the Zionist-Socialist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair takes its bogrim, the group of usually 16-year-old leaders from around the world, on a weeklong trip to Poland. When it was my turn in 2006, the dates fell on Passover. The nine of us from Vienna boarded a night…
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Opinion Annexation Was Always Naftali Bennett’s Plan A
Israel’s Naftali Bennett / Getty Images On Wednesday, the multi-portfolioed Naftali Bennett – Israel’s Minister of the Economy, Minister of Religious Services, and Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs – sent a letter to his Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. In that letter, according to Israeli Army Radio, Bennett called for a cabinet meeting “to begin…
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Opinion Two Moroccan Bangles Bind Generations
Photo by Martyna Starosta Editor’s note: Whether it’s a silver kiddush cup, a siddur that survived the Holocaust, or a wedding ring — heirlooms tell the story of our families. Please share your Jewish heirloom stories with us below by April 25. Several submissions will be featured in the Forward in May. In my family,…
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Opinion How You Would Spend Jewish Charity Billions
Do the spending priorities of American Jewish charities match those of American Jews? Judging by an informal but highly revealing poll of Forward readers, the answer is no. As in NO. As in: spend more money on education, culture and community, about the same on general advocacy and much less on Israel. The Forward’s poll…
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