Opinion

• Opinion

  Bernie Madoff, Our Convenient Scapegoat

  You couldn’t dream up a better villain. Bernie Madoff, the man we all love to hate, is back in the news, opining from his jail cell on matters political, ethical and financial, this time in an interview with Politico magazine. Madoff won’t win many friends with this new interview, and may even gain a few…

  By Jay Michaelson

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Netanyahu’s Fake Jerusalem Stalls Peace

  Benjamin Netanyahu / Getty Images Last week we learned that Israel’s government is advancing plans for another 2,269 settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; 144 are planned for the Jerusalem settlement neighborhood of Har Homa. Discussion surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict tends to focus on minutiae, or the broad sweep of an entire…

  By Emily L. Hauser Mar 24, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  A Shabbat Lesson From Doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 — or Not

  (Haaretz) — While the world anxiously awaits information regarding the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a perplexing Jewish angle to the story has emerged. In short, a Jewish traveler who is not Sabbath observant was booking a flight through a Jewish travel agent. The traveler planned on flying on Flight 370 on the…

  By Eliyahu Fink Mar 24, 2014 | 4 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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  How I Built My Jewish Charity Database

  Last summer, I hit upon a way to measure Jewish institutional power: Using data from the IRS, I would gather financial information on every single Jewish organization that files a tax return. My first story based on that project is printed in this issue of the Forward. This addendum, which is only for readers with…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Mar 24, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Baghdad Ranked ‘Worst City in World’ to Live In

  Boy aims toy gun at wreckage of a Baghdad car bombing, one of 9 across Iraq that killed 14 on March 5. And that wasn’t Iraq’s worst day in March. / Getty Images Mission Accomplished: Just in time for the 11th anniversary of America’s war to liberate Iraq, a leading global business consulting firm comes…

  By J.J. Goldberg Mar 24, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Why a Sicilian Nun’s Song Moved Me as a Jew

  I’m not usually the type of person who goes in for reality TV shows. Especially not when they revolve around singing competitions, and especially not when one of their singers’ performances becomes an overnight Internet sensation, to be endlessly posted and reposted on social media. So why did I feel compelled to watch a Sicilian…

  By Sigal Samuel Mar 23, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Harvard Group Was Right To Visit Arafat’s Grave

  Harvard students pose at Yasser Arafat’s grave. / Twitter Last Monday, the Harvard College Israel Trek went to the Muqata’a, the offices of the Palestinian government, in Ramallah. While they were there, the group took a picture with Yasser Arafat’s grave, which was inevitably Tweeted by the group’s tour guide. The photo was picked up…

  By Elisheva Goldberg Mar 23, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Embracing ‘Otherhood’

  ‘Would you date a non-Jewish guy?” Sarah asked over dinner a few weeks ago. She’d started dating non-Jewish men in her late 30s. “No,” I said. “I want to marry a Jewish man.” “I understand,” Sarah said. “I always thought I would, too. But I’m 41 and I just want to give it everything I’ve…

  By Melanie Notkin Mar 23, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Making Ritual for Ourselves

  Take the ritual of sitting shiva, for example. It is a cluster of touching and cryptic customs. Try parsing those customs and you will find yourself at a loss for words — or, if you’ve bothered to read the “explanatory” literature, inundated by a surfeit of words, this interpretation being run over by that, one…

  By Leonard Fein Mar 22, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Spiritual Advisor Students Need (Hint: It’s Not Campus Rabbi Anymore)

  The Jewish world is still aflutter with the recent results of the Pew Research Center’s study of American Jews, which speaks of declining Jewish identification among young people. While much of the institutional world is fretting about how to reach Jews who don’t identify with being Jewish, Hampshire College, a secular institution in Amherst, Mass.,…

  By Ellen Bernstein Mar 22, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How a Flight Was Lost in the ‘Twilight Zone’

  Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has now been missing for two weeks, and there’s still no sign of the aircraft and no real clue to the mystery of its disappearance. This clip might not dispel the fog of unknown, but it’s worth a look if only to widen the lens of possibility. It’s a classic “Twilight…

  By J.J. Goldberg Mar 22, 2014 | < 1 min read