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
Will Israel’s Haredi Draft Bill Empower Women?
Getty Images As the Israeli government prepares to present the Knesset with its bill to draft yeshiva students into the army, the Haredi community is seething. But even as it kicks into reactionary mode, you’ve got to wonder whether, paradoxically, this could present an opportunity for some limited advancement among Haredi women. The Haredi media…
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Opinion Handing the Western Wall to the Judaizers
Wikipedia Quick, if you’re a settler-dominated government uninterested in sharing Jerusalem with the Palestinian people, what’s a good way to telegraph your position without raising a ruckus? Well, one good way would be to turn over a sizable portion of Judaism’s holiest site to the management of a maximalist settler group — which is precisely…
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Opinion News Quiz: Bar Rafaeli, King David and the Lovely Miss Israel
King David, RoboCop and Bar Rafaeli walk into a quiz…. And here it is!
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Opinion Will Ukraine’s Revolution Be Good for Its Jews?
I teach modern Jewish history. Usually, when I mention Ukraine in class, my students’ eyes glaze over. But lately that hasn’t been the case. The eyes of the world have been turned to Kiev, the city that was home to Sholem Aleichem, and the birthplace of Golda Meir. People are now wondering whether this revolution…
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Opinion How Many Lives Is a Da Vinci Masterpiece Worth?
George Clooney’s new film, “The Monuments Men,” is based on the real-life story of a team of scholars and artists who threw on some fatigues and dashed off to Europe during World War II to save imperiled art. Their mission is very explicitly framed as a heroic struggle to save Western Culture (with that capital…
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Opinion The Lesson of Angela Merkel’s Hitler Mustache
Benjamin Netanyahu casts Hitler mustache on Angela Merkel / Marc Israel Sellem Ah, the hazards of light and shadow. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at a press conference today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he didn’t mean to point his finger in a way that would cast upon her face a distinctly Hitler-mustache-like…
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Opinion Will Arizona Go the Anti-Gay Way of Uganda?
Will Arizona become the next Uganda? As we go to press, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is debating whether to sign a “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” that will allow discrimination if the discriminator claims a religious justification. It’s been nicknamed the “Turn The Gays Away” bill because it will allow any business — restaurants, nail salons,…
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Opinion Why Newsweek Is Ending Top 50 Rabbis List
Some of the rabbis from the Newsweek Top 50 Rabbis list. / The Daily Beast If we’ve ever watched how a well-intentioned concept can generate unintended consequences, it’s the Newsweek Top 50 Rabbis list. It was conceived back in 2007 simply because we were genuinely curious about which rabbis were considered leading lights and why….
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Opinion Replacing @PresidentofIsrael
The journalist Gershom Gorenberg says that in Israel the office of president is much like the Queen of England. Only much cheaper. In many ways, he’s right. The Israeli presidency is not an inherited position, of course, and it has none of the aristocratic presumptions built into the House of Windsor; the official president’s house…
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Opinion AIPAC’s Times Op-Ed: Hold the Noose Steady, Bibi
Senator Robert Menendez addresses AIPAC, March 2013 / Getty Images When I wrote last week that Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu had instructed AIPAC to go stick its head in a noose — specifically, to pick another fight with the White House over Iran sanctions legislation, a scant 11 days after its bruised retreat from the…
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Opinion Introducing ‘The Seesaw’
The Forward is launching The Seesaw, a new advice column which will focus on the real life issues faced by interfaith couples and families. While the Jewish establishment wrestles with the communal implications of interfaith relationships, a growing number of American Jews are simply living in one. For them, intermarriage isn’t a problem or a…
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