Opinion

• Opinion

  College Campuses Will Become Climate Change Battleground in 2014

  The Forward asked a number of writers to offer their hopes and predictions for the new year. What ideas and trends will shape our world in 2014? Human sources will spew billions more tons of carbon dioxide and other heat-retaining gases into the atmosphere. The industrial fervor that raised standards of living in many parts…

  By Todd Gitlin

  < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Are Jewish Day Schools the Answer?

  For non-Orthodox Jews in America, sending one’s child to a Jewish day school has long been considered the best defense against assimilation. So consistently have studies proven this point that it is a mystery why more money isn’t spent on subsidizing those parents who can’t afford to send their children. These schools have become overwhelmingly…

  By Helene Wingens and Jordana Horn Dec 30, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Is ‘Open Orthodoxy’ an Oxymoron?

  This past year saw the inaugural graduation in June of Yeshivat Maharat, the Bronx yeshiva that has been controversially training women to lead Orthodox congregations. Three new maharats emerged from the school this year. Then in the fall came the high profile installation of Rabbi Asher Lopatin as the new president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah,…

  By Gil Student and Jonathan Sarna Dec 30, 2013 | 2 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 The righteous rabbis protesting those immigration raids in Los Angeles

  

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

  

• Dan Perry Mike Huckabee’s stunning, terrifying new gift to the Israeli right

  

• Emily Tamkin The two things I fear most after the horrifying attack on Jews in Boulder

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Are Women of the Wall Pathbreakers — or Provocateurs?

  For 25 years, the Women of the Wall have met for prayer services at the Kotel at the beginning of each Jewish month. But until a Jerusalem court’s ruling this past April, women in the group who donned prayer shawls or sang too loudly would often be detained by police. Now the police are protecting…

  By Dahlia Lithwick and Susan Silverman and Hillel Halkin Dec 30, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  News Quiz: Yasser Arafat, Portuguese Plumbers and the ‘Quenelle’

  From Portuguese plumbers to Maimonides, we’ve got Jews in the news for you, along with Facebook, Yasser Arafat and creamed herring. Just try finding those someplace else. (All together, we mean.)

  By Lenore Skenazy Dec 30, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  2013 Was the Year of Twerking

  Miley Cyrus isn’t Jewish. Baruch Hashem. She isn’t ours to worry about — to define, to defend, to forgive or condemn. We can’t get off that easy, however. We may have had nothing to do with the creation of Cyrus but all of us had our part in setting the stage, physical and otherwise, upon…

  By Elissa Strauss Dec 30, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Disaster in the Depths

  Deep beneath the surface of the sea, news has spread of an emerging threat, and an ancient ecosystem braces for an existential crisis. Get the full story in Eli Valley’s latest spine-tingling adventure! Click on the thumbnail to the right for a larger version: Eli Valley is finishing his first novel. His column appears monthly…

  By Eli Valley Dec 30, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  What a Year It’s Been, 2013

  How fast the year flew, this twenty thirteen. Its joys and terrors, its news unforeseen. Obama and Bibi made up and fought, The Arab Spring became even more fraught. Shutdowns and boycotts and storms from above, Plus the roll-out disaster called healthcare-dot-gov. But let’s not succumb to sharing bad news. And instead let’s celebrate all…

  Dec 29, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Is Bibi Shedding His Peace-Seeker Pose?

  Israel’s peace-pact rejectionists, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon (Wikimedia Commons) Benjamin Netanyahu is looking more and more these days like he’s preparing to take on the pessimists and nay-sayers and prove them wrong. For most of the past year the cynics have been insisting that neither Netanyahu nor Palestinian Authority chief…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 29, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Finding a New Room in the Jewish House

  My original thought had been to follow up my column on the year now ending by writing about the year that will soon begin. But twist and turn as I did, I found that I had very little to say about the 12 months ahead. Robert Frost’s last poem comes to mind: “The prophets really…

  By Leonard Fein Dec 29, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Obamacare ‘Pajama Boy’ Controversy Wrapped in Anti-Semitism

  Surely the silliest kerfluffle of a political year that contained much silliness was the recent conservative hand-wringing over “Pajama Boy.” Pajama Boy, you will be forgiven for not knowing, was the star of a recent ad — one among many — by “Organizing for Action” (formerly Obama for America) designed to get people to register…

  By Jay Michaelson Dec 28, 2013 | 3 min read