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
Don’t Pardon Jonathan Pollard
It’s not clear whether the idea was leaked by the Obama administration or advanced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But the very suggestion that convicted spy Jonathan J. Pollard may be released from his North Carolina prison as part of an effort to resuscitate the flailing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations has accomplished something rare in Middle…
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Opinion Jon Stewart Twits ‘Zionist Billionaire’ Adelson. Ouch
Jon Stewart took on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s self-commissioned and miraculously self-exonerating investigative report into the Bridgegate scandal last night, and led from there into a viciously funny takedown of Christie’s apology to Sheldon Adelson for referring to the territories as “occupied” during a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition. In Part 2 (after…
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Opinion Pollard Chatter Means Peace Talks Are Serious
Protestors call for Jonathan Pollard to be released from prison. / Getty Images Jonathan Pollard — the man who stole huge amounts of intelligence and gave it to Israel and has been sitting in an American prison for 30 years — has become a chip to be traded in order keep Israeli-Palestinian talks going. Pollard…
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Opinion POLL: How Would You Spend Jewish Billions?
How should Jewish donor dollars get spent? Today, the largest share of Jewish donor dollars goes to Israel-related charities, as the Forward reported last week in the first part of our series on Jewish charity finances. (Part two of the series, published today, is here.) Are we spending too much on Israel? Or maybe too…
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Opinion GOP House Bill Tells Feds To Cut Climate Research
Today, Tuesday, April 1, a day after the United Nations released its latest and most disturbing climate change report (text), the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives is due to vote on a bill ordering the federal government’s top weather and climate research organization to spend more time on forecasting weather and storms and less studying…
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Opinion Romemu Bans ‘Email Chametz’ on Passover
We’ve all felt it. That ever-present desire — compulsion, really — to check and then recheck our email. Just one more hit of the refresh button. Just one more scroll. Just one more reply-all. Just one more delete. We love it. And we hate it. Most of the year, we bemoan but ultimately accept the…
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Opinion Failing To Capture the Vibrancy of British Jewish Life
A number of times over the last few years, I’ve had the same, mildly disconcerting, conversation. I’m a pretty involved in the UK Jewish community, spending a big chunk of my life on the merry-go-round of Jewish events. The community also forms of big part of my social life and after 42 years of involvement…
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Opinion British Jews Go the Way of American Jews
First, the good news. The most recent census revealed that, for the first time in decades, the decline in Britain’s Jewish population has been arrested. In 2011, 263,346 chose to identify themselves as Jewish by religion in England and Wales, compared to 259,927 in 2001. Beneath the headline figure, however, all it not as it…
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Opinion When Is BDS Not BDS? A Vassar Passover Tale
Several alert readers are unhappy with my post last week on the nasty BDS debate at Vassar College. Among other things, I referred readers to a post by the conservative legal scholar William Jacobson on his LegalInsurrection.com blog, providing extensive documentation on the background to the clash. Critics claim I wrongly soft-pedaled the behavior of…
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Opinion Hillel Balances Donors and Students on Campus
Jay Michaelson’s recent column in these pages, “Only One Way to Change Hillel: Leave,” reveals a number of damaging yet popular misconceptions about the Hillel world and the role of donors in dictating the content of our programming. Jay, since you referred to my own recent essay here, “The Hillel Kids are All Right,” I’m…
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Opinion Groveling Season, Las Vegas to Jerusalem to D.C.
Las Vegas, March 29: Chris Christie addresses Republican Jewish Coalition. Sheldon Adelson listens. / Getty Images With all the apologies flying back and forth these days, you might almost think Yom Kippur came early this year. In fact, tradition teaches that there’s a deep spiritual bond between Yom Kippur, which is six months from now,…
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