Opinion

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  The Year of Magical Thinking

  “That’s the good thing about science: It’s true whether or not you believe in it. That’s why it works.” So said Neil deGrasse Tyson, joining Bill Nye as players in a strange cultural moment: the resurgence of magical thinking. Magical thinking, you’ll recall, refers to the misattribution of causality: The black cat meowed, and then…

  By Jay Michaelson

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  On Yarzeit, Recall King’s Last Battle: Labor Rights

  Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, 1968. Left: April 3. Right: April 4. Today is the 46th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Below is the editorial I wrote for the Forward seven years ago, on what would have been his 78th birthday — the moment when the years since his death…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 4, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Nate Silver Should Listen to Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Nate Silver has pissed a lot of people off lately. In an interview with New York Magazine about the then upcoming launch of the new FiveThirtyEight site, the data-journalism enthusiast took a jab at traditional opinion journalism. He told the interviewer that pundits might “have really high IQs, but they don’t have any discipline in…

  By Elissa Strauss Apr 4, 2014 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Gavin Newsom isn’t waffling on Israel — he’s voicing sensible ideas in an era of outrage

  

• Dan Perry An abominable new Israeli law is a death warrant for democracy

  

• Emily Tamkin We must rewrite the rulebook for fighting antisemitism — or conspiracists like Joe Kent will win the narrative wars

  

• Jay Michaelson Passover’s 4 cups of meaning

  

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  Opinion

  Bash-J Street Audience Turns on Dershowitz

  The Philadelphia screening of the anti-J Street film “The J Street Challenge” by the Jewish federation and the regional Hillel council reportedly turned into a rowdy right-wing roast in which the audience turned its fury on Alan Dershowitz. So reports Matthew Berkman, a University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. candidate writing a doctoral thesis on American Jewish…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 4, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Memo to New York Times: Women Are Jews, Too

  Protesters call for the release of Jonathan Pollard / Getty Images So I check the homepage of the New York Times on Thursday afternoon, as I regularly do several times a day, to see a prominent story proclaiming that all the talk of freeing convicted spy Jonathan J. Pollard is dividing American Jews. “More and…

  By Jane Eisner Apr 3, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Watching Porn While Sitting Shiva

  Digital Spy It was my first shiva call, and it shocked me out of my wits. Sarah, one of the residents in the Jewish retirement community where I’d been conducting seminars on world news, had passed away. A cheerful lady in her 90s, she had always brought an international aspect to our weekly discussions. I…

  By Henrik Eger Apr 3, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel’s Missed Energy Opportunity

  The Tamar drilling natural gas production platform near Israel / Getty Images It’s now a week since the scheduled start of one of the most important energy deals in Israeli history. But the signing was called off, hasn’t been rescheduled since, and now, uncertainty hangs over the future of the deal. Australia-based Woodside Petroleum was…

  By Nathan Jeffay Apr 3, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Donor Slams Federation for Divisive ‘Political Attack Ad’ Aimed at J Street

  For more than 30 years, my relationship with Jewish federations, Israel Bonds, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, J Street and Hillel has been the focus of my life. I have chaired federation and Israel Bonds campaigns, led and helped create Jewish day schools in both Milwaukee and Tucson, Ariz., and donated millions of dollars…

  By Larry Gellman Apr 3, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What Olmert’s Conviction Means for Peace

  Getty Images The Israeli legal system just got its teeth back. Much has been written about the conviction this week of Israel’s Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a bribery trial. The reverberations of the ruling are felt far and wide. In the political sphere, this seems to be the end of the dream which…

  By Nathan Jeffay Apr 2, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Jerusalem Post’s Absurd Visa Waiver Plea

  Getty Images The Jerusalem Post’s latest editorial wades into the Israel-U.S. debate over travel visas — and comes to some absurd conclusions. The government of Israel has been trying for a while to reach an agreement with the American authorities allowing Israeli tourists to visit the U.S. for a short time without a visa. The…

  By Anna Momigliano Apr 2, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  5 Myths About Jonathan Pollard Case

  The Jonathan Pollard matter just won’t go away — and for good reason. The most recent flurry of interest surrounding the case was fueled this week by the news that the White House might be moved, at long last, to release Pollard from prison. But the problem with the case — however troubling the case…

  By Jerome Chanes Apr 2, 2014 | 4 min read