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
Will Arizona Go the Anti-Gay Way of Uganda?
Will Arizona become the next Uganda? As we go to press, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is debating whether to sign a “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” that will allow discrimination if the discriminator claims a religious justification. It’s been nicknamed the “Turn The Gays Away” bill because it will allow any business — restaurants, nail salons,…
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Opinion Why Newsweek Is Ending Top 50 Rabbis List
Some of the rabbis from the Newsweek Top 50 Rabbis list. / The Daily Beast If we’ve ever watched how a well-intentioned concept can generate unintended consequences, it’s the Newsweek Top 50 Rabbis list. It was conceived back in 2007 simply because we were genuinely curious about which rabbis were considered leading lights and why….
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Opinion Replacing @PresidentofIsrael
The journalist Gershom Gorenberg says that in Israel the office of president is much like the Queen of England. Only much cheaper. In many ways, he’s right. The Israeli presidency is not an inherited position, of course, and it has none of the aristocratic presumptions built into the House of Windsor; the official president’s house…
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Opinion AIPAC’s Times Op-Ed: Hold the Noose Steady, Bibi
Senator Robert Menendez addresses AIPAC, March 2013 / Getty Images When I wrote last week that Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu had instructed AIPAC to go stick its head in a noose — specifically, to pick another fight with the White House over Iran sanctions legislation, a scant 11 days after its bruised retreat from the…
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Opinion Introducing ‘The Seesaw’
The Forward is launching The Seesaw, a new advice column which will focus on the real life issues faced by interfaith couples and families. While the Jewish establishment wrestles with the communal implications of interfaith relationships, a growing number of American Jews are simply living in one. For them, intermarriage isn’t a problem or a…
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Opinion Ultra-Orthodox Jews Shouldn’t Have a Monopoly on Tradition
Avi Shafran is unhappy with the term “ultra-Orthodox.” I am too. Both as a sociologist and as someone who identifies himself as an Orthodox Jew, I too find the message implied by the term “ultra-Orthodox” false, but for different reasons. The people who have been so identified are not “more” Orthodox, nor are they necessarily…
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Opinion Ukraine’s Reform Rabbi Cheers Protest’s Victory
A man stands beside a military oven in Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine. / Getty Images Over the weekend, the Forward contacted Ukraine’s chief Reform rabbi, Alexander Dukhovny, to ask him about how he felt seeing the months of protests on Kiev’s central square lead to a clear resolution in the president’s ouster. This is…
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Opinion British Jews: Showing Green Line Is Not ‘Insane’
Young British Jews who support the Sign on the Green Line Campaign. / YouTube Throughout our history, young Jewish voices have played a vital role in shaping the Jewish story. Young people lead and teach other young people and take on significant leadership roles. Youth empowerment is highly valued, and it was with this feeling…
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Opinion Don’t Call Us ‘Ultra-Orthodox’
My religious group is routinely referred to by a pejorative. That the name we are called is negative in only an indirect way doesn’t alter the fact that it is disparaging. It telegraphs a subconscious bias (and may well spawn from the same). I’m not quite Howard Beale-mad about the subtle slur, but I’m peeved…
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Opinion The Disappearing Places of Our Jewish Past in the Old Country
I was born in a city in eastern Slovakia, called Bardejov. When I was growing up, we Jews made up nearly a third of the city. We had synagogues, schools, a number of communal organizations, even a couple of Hebrew publishing houses. Then came the Holocaust. Only several hundred of us survived. Some of us…
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Opinion Moving Toward a ‘Living Wage’
There’s an active debate in America regarding the minimum wage. By and large, with President Obama’s endorsement and substantial public agreement, there’s widespread support for a bump upward, from the current national minimum of $7.25 and hour to $10.10 an hour. That sounds like a hefty hike, but it is actually about as stingy as…
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