Opinion

• Opinion

  In Jerusalem’s Conclaves, Mind-Numbing Meets Ugly

  Jerusalem is having an unusually mild fall. November began amid sunny skies, temperatures in the high 60s, light breezes and just the slightest hint of feathery drizzle to announce that after a bone-dry October, the rainy season was finally about to return. Diaspora Jews are returning too. No, not the waves of immigration that generations…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel Must Stop Settler Violence

  Jan Psaki, a State Department spokesperson, characterized Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement in early November of plans for thousands of new settlement homes as not conducive to “steps that create a positive atmosphere for continued negotiations.” The mild and familiar American condemnation is certainly true, but off the mark, considering the very negative atmosphere created by daily…

  By Mairav Zonszein Nov 8, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Live Tweeting the Kristallnacht Pogroms

  Exactly 75 years ago, between November 7 and 13, 1938, a wave of anti-Semitic pogroms swept across Germany and Austria. This year, a group of German historians chose to commemorate the events, which marked a turning point in the Nazi’s persecution of Jews, using an unconventional medium: Twitter. On October 28, the five historians who…

  By Anna Goldenberg Nov 8, 2013 | 2 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman Americans keep getting killed in the West Bank. Here’s how the US could fight that awful trend

  

• Nora Berman First Camp Auschwitz, now Alligator Alcatraz — why the right is obsessed with commodifying brutality

  

• Dan Perry What exactly is going on between Israel and Syria — and is the prospect of peace dead?

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  George W. Bush Embraces Jews for Jesus

  Who’s surprised that former President George W. Bush is speaking at the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute benefit? Not anyone who understands Christian Zionism, ‘Jews for Jesus,’ and the many links between them. Christian Zionists are now the leading supporters of Israel’s settler fringe. They are showering the Israeli Right with money, tourists, and political lobbying….

  By Jay Michaelson Nov 8, 2013 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  News Quiz: Kosher Starbucks, Anthony Weiner

  Anthony Weiner, Elliot Spitzer and Bernie Goetz. They’re back, in this week’s quiz. The latest item to wow visitors to Kosherfest? It’s here, too, because, like those men, it’s as Jewish and strange as it Goetz. <a href=”http://theforward.polldaddy.com/s/jew-hear-about-2″>View Survey</a>

  By Lenore Skenazy Nov 8, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Gaza Teens Marry, Cars Run on Fumes — and Isolated Hamas Eyes a Way Out

  The wedding photos tell a startling story: a Palestinian bride and groom, just 14 and 15 years old, respectively, tie the knot in a small village in the Gaza Strip. The half dozen images included a few lines of impressionistic commentary from the Reuters shutterbug who took them. It quickly began to make the rounds…

  By Jose Vericat Nov 8, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Editor’s Choice: Remember Kristallnacht, Torah of Drones

  The Forward is partnering with other Jewish newspapers to offer our readers a peek at some of the best stories from around the country, as selected by the editors at those papers. We will offer a selection of unedited links with brief introductions from the editors of the papers. From the Baltimore Jewish Times: “Kristallnacht:…

  By Forward Staff Nov 7, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Avigdor Lieberman Acquittal Upends Israel Politics

  Israeli politics were turned upside down this week by the surprise acquittal on Wednesday of Avigdor Lieberman, the blunt-talking, Arab-bashing, Soviet-born former foreign minister and head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party. He had been charged with fraud, witness tampering and breach of trust for allegedly promoting a crony to an ambassadorship. The promotion was allegedly…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 7, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Who Poisoned Yasser Arafat? The Palestinians.

  Inside Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters, the top military and political and money men of the Palestine Liberation Organizaion would speak about their leader in hushed, nervous tones. They told of a chairman who was falling apart. He wore unwashed clothes. He rambled about the old days in Beirut. Then he was gone. Poisoned with polonium,…

  By Matthew Kalman and Matt Rees Nov 7, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel Discovers Jewish Diaspora Crisis in Confidence

  With the startling results of the Pew survey on American Jewish identity still echoing loudly around the globe, this was a fortuitous moment for an international Jewish summit to convene in Jerusalem and hash out strategies for shoring up the next generation. In fact the two-day summit, beginning November 6 and involving some 120 community…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 7, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Brad Ausmus Talks Jews and Baseball

  Brad Ausmus was named the Detroit Tigers manager this week, making him the sixth Jew to lead a Major League club. As a player, he was an All-Star catcher for the Tigers, a three time Gold Glove winner playing for the Astros and possessor of the third-best lifetime fielding average of any catcher in major…

  By Larry Ruttman Nov 6, 2013 | 4 min read