Opinion

• Opinion

  The Silence Around Sex in the Haredi World — and Its Unfortunate Consequences

  It was the evening before Israel’s Memorial Day more than five years ago. I was living on Mount Scopus and waiting for any form of transportation to take me to the Kotel for the state ceremony. With little time to spare, a taxi pulled up with a Hasid in the back and a seemingly secular…

  By Margaux Chetrit

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Will Hollywood Get New Intermarriage Script?

  A still from the Woody Allen film “Annie Hall” represents a fading paradigm of intermarriage. These days, more American Jewish women than men are marrying out, as the Forward’s Josh Nathan-Kazis recently reported. The story’s headline, “Jewish Woman Is New Face of Intermarriage, Pew Study Data Reveals,” led me to wonder: If Jewish women have…

  By Phoebe Maltz Bovy Feb 20, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  De Blasio on Backing AIPAC: Yes, It’s My Job

  New York City mayor Bill De Blasio just appeared on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes” and was asked in the last few minutes about his January 23 speech to an AIPAC gathering at the New York Hilton, where he told the pro-Israel lobby he would “stand by you” whenever he’s needed “’cause that’s my…

  By J.J. Goldberg Feb 20, 2014 | 2 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry The 3 responses to the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack that could make Jews safer

  

• Emily Tamkin The fundamental miscalculation behind the GOP’s antisemitism crisis

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Hoarder Wants ‘Nazi’ Art Back — Looted or Not

  Art historian Meike Hoffmann speaks to the media regarding the seizure in 2011 of 1,500 paintings from Cornelius Gurlitt in Germany. / Getty Images It looks like the German lawmakers will be too late. Cornelius Gurlitt’s spokesman, Stephan Holzinger, announced today that Gurlitt’s lawyers filed a complaint at an Augsburg court, arguing that tax authorities’…

  By Rachel Stern Feb 19, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How Not To Brainstorm the Jewish Future

  Supporters of Naftali Bennett celebrate in Tel Aviv in 2013. / Getty Images When I heard that the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency were spearheading a three-day “Online Brainstorming Marathon to Plan the Future of the Jewish People,” the international crowdsourcing initiative instantly grabbed my attention. Partly, it was because I’d heard that Israel’s…

  By Mira Sucharov Feb 19, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Gold Medalist Charlie White Not Really Jewish

  Getty Images (JTA) — Earlier this week, Jewish news outlets ran reports on American ice dancers Charlie White and Meryl Davis winning Olympic gold. All these outlets reported — based on previously published articles — that White was Jewish. It appears we were all misinformed. The Detroit Jewish News — which initially report White’s supposed…

  By Daniel Treiman Feb 19, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  How to See the Schneersohn Library Online

  You don’t have to fly all the way to Moscow to view the Schneersohn Library. After almost a century in the bowels of Russian’s state library, the Schneersohn books are available online for anyone around the world to see. You can view the books in a web browser or even, in many cases, download them…

  By Paul Berger Feb 19, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Call It Sochifreude

  Call it Sochifreude. For the past two years, human rights activists have decried the conditions of the Sochi Olympic games, which wrap up this week, often to deaf ears. They’ve reported accounts of migrant workers being abused, environmental laws being trashed, billions of dollars being embezzled, and, of course, the ban on gay “propaganda” which…

  By Jay Michaelson Feb 19, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  BDS Is Not Anti-Semitism

  Pro-Palestinians activists demonstrate in 2010 in Paris, France. / Getty Images No. It’s not. The Prime Minister of Israel and the Grand Poobah of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and Marching Band can say it as much and as loudly as they want. But the BDS movement is not, as Grand…

  By Emily L. Hauser Feb 18, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Single, Non-Jewish, and Eager To Convert

  Kelly was one of those non-Jewish girls I’d always envied — the ones who seemed to know where every cool party was and dressed with an urban flair. So it took me by surprise when, one day last year, she excitedly told me that she was converting to Judaism. I knew she loved “Jewy” things….

  By Shayna Estulin Feb 18, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  A Woman Is More Than a Wedding Night

  Racheli Ibenboim chats with writer Tuvia Tenenbom./Photo by Isi Tenenbaum I may not be a dyed-in-the-wool feminist by any stretch of the imagination. But I have a strong sense of the rights of women to take agency in their own lives and a repulsion for the oppressive nature of men who harass women for their…

  By Mordechai Lightstone Feb 17, 2014 | 2 min read