Opinion

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  A Trailblazing Cantor

  In many ways, Mark Goldman’s a traditional cantor. He serves a 900-member Reform congregation, in Plantation, Florida. He’s performed around the world, including a historic group gig at the Vatican. And he loves to chant the “haunting, yet familiar” Kol Nidre. But this year, the UK expat became a trailblazer. After nearly two decades as…

  By Michael Kaminer

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Mr. Obama, Your Selfie Sent All the Wrong Messages

  Getty Images Thank you, Mr. President. You’ve just made it harder for me and every other parent and educator to convince young people that taking selfies at memorials and on solemn occasions is not okay. Just what were you thinking when you leaned in close to Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and British Prime Minister…

  By Renee Ghert-Zand Dec 11, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Opposition in Israel Mounts Around Bedouin Transfer Plan

  Israel is promoting a plan to transfer some 40,000 Arab Bedouin citizens from traditional villages into towns despite opposition by activists and senior government officials that threatens to derail it. Government supporters say the resettlement would encourage development, but that was repeatedly challenged by residents of the villages in Israel’s southern Negev desert. “It’s a…

  By Reuters Dec 11, 2013 | 3 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 A precise, Chekhovian logic guided Israel’s strike on Iran — but chaos could come next

  

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

  

• Dan Perry Celebrating my daughter’s birthday in a bomb shelter, as missiles struck Tel Aviv

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s latest move makes Mahmoud Khalil a Joseph for our times

  

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  Opinion

  Censoring Hillels Goes Against Jewish Traditions

  Hillel President Eric Fingerhut chats with a student. Flickr: Hillel News and Views. Hillel, the ancient sage, was famously impossible to insult. The Talmud portrays intellectuals, rebellious students, passersby and would-be converts as offering jokes, specious arguments, and outrageous claims — all to rattle the unflappable teacher. But in the face of faulty arguments, Hillel…

  By Andy Bachman Dec 11, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Ex-Labor Pol, Ousted from Peace Now Panel, Cries ‘Intolerance’

  Einat Wilf and Ehud Barak announce defection from Labor Party, January 17, 2011 / Wikimedia Commons A former Labor Party Knesset member, Einat Wilf, is complaining that she’s been dropped from the program of the third annual Conference of the Israeli Left, sponsored Peace Now, because of her pro-Israel views. In a Facebook post announcing…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 11, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Skipping Mandela Funeral, Bibi Misses an Important Lesson

  Late-night comedians may have made fun of him, but George H.W. Bush knew the value of a good foreign funeral. He went to lots of them during the eight years he was Ronald Reagan’s vice president, jetting around the world to deliver the United States’ respects and, not incidentally, to chat up other mourners. Barbara…

  Dec 11, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  40,000 Sign Petition To Help 6 Year Old Jewish Boy

  Rabbi Yaakov and Devorah Cohen have run out of medical options to save their six-year-old son Raphael Elisha, who suffers from a malignant brain and spine cancer. Desperate to save their son, the Cohens have turned to the internet. The couple posted a petition which asks the FDA to authorize a compassionate exemption so their…

  By Hody Nemes Dec 10, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  An Open Left?

  In recent years, the Israeli left has argued strongly for freedom of expression and open debate, often in the face of calls from the right for the silencing of such-and-such an NGO, conference, or political event. But it seems that open-mindedness isn’t universal across the left. Einat Wilf, a former lawmaker for the Labor and…

  By Nathan Jeffay Dec 10, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  The Lessons of Newtown

  In the dry, neutral language used in these types of missives, the just-released official report on the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School sidesteps any determination of causality or assignment of blame. Even though the shooter, Adam Lanza, had “significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life,” and even though…

  Dec 10, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Sparks Fly as Bibi, Kerry, Obama Spar at D.C. Event

  President Obama and Haim Saban, Washington, D.C., December 7 / Getty Images Tempers are wearing thin both in Washington and Jerusalem over continuing disagreements on the Iran nuclear talks and the U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. And the situation wasn’t helped by last weekend’s Saban Forum in Washington. The three-day forum, sponsored by the Brookings Institution,…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 10, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  News Quiz: Wonder Woman, Cannabis and a Brand New Pill

  Wonder Woman, weed and a strange new pill. It sounds like a bad trip, or even worse comic book. But actually it’s just last week’s Jewish news, all rolled into one big, fat quiz.

  By Lenore Skenazy Dec 9, 2013 | < 1 min read