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
Academic Freedom — Not Boycotts — Should Be Focus of Israel Academia Debate
The uproar in the Jewish community over the American Studies Association’s vote to boycott Israeli universities has largely overlooked one point: Are we, who oppose these sorts of boycotts, truly committed to academic freedom for people of all views on the Israel-Palestine conflict? Of course there are reasons, aside from academic freedom, to oppose the…
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Opinion Remembering Gordon Zacks, Jewish GOP Leader
Anyone can change the course of events, especially when they see injustice. That was the mantra of Gordon Zacks, who died Saturday in the Columbus, Ohio area at the age of 80. A founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition and an unofficial adviser to George H.W. Bush, Gordon wrote the book on character, courage and…
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Opinion Intermarriage Is Fact of Jewish Life — Not Disease
(JTA) — All in favor of a strong Jewish future say “aye.” On that core question, there is resounding unanimity, but there have been some unnecessarily polarizing articles in the Jewish press suggesting that we have to select either endogamy or outreach. Nonsense! Such binary thinking reduces a multi-dimensional and complex reality to a false…
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Opinion Confessions of a Disengaged Young Jew
I don’t have strong opinions about Israel. I can’t say whether the country’s risks justify the force it often employs, nor can I say whether its greatest threats come from within or without. It’s strange to begin a column by revealing one’s indifference on a topic. I know. Though what interests me isn’t what one…
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Opinion Why Jews Should Tune In to the Mindfulness Revolution
The current cover of Time magazine features a blissed-out and beautiful blonde, captioned with the text “The Mindful Revolution.” The images are cliché, but the Time cover story is but the latest in a long line of significant — possibly historic — changes in how Americans regard contemplative practice. It recounts the fascinating evolution of…
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Opinion Anne Heyman’s Remarkable Life of Service
Anne Heyman put together a life of immense complexity with apparent ease because she knew who she was, what she cared about and what she wanted to accomplish. Anne loved her family passionately and cared tremendously that her children grow up with a global perspective and with the capacity to care for others. She was…
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Opinion Avant-Garde Aliyah to Berlin
“There’s always this joke that half of Tel Aviv is actually here,” Liad Hussein Kantorowicz told me when I interviewed her in her Berlin apartment. The numbers back her up: According to the latest estimates, 15,000 to 20,000 people have left Israel in recent years to forge a new life in Berlin. Most of these…
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Opinion Disillusioned on Capitol Hill
I almost marked the email as spam. When it arrived in my inbox, the subject head had that distinctive indistinctness of junk mail: “Invitation To Testify Before Congress….” Me? Right. But then I clicked on it anyway. And Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia’s office was indeed asking me if I would give witness to the…
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Opinion Politics v. Defense: Hamas Backfire, Shin Bet Purge
Hamas police on the Gaza-Egypt border, September 2013 / Getty Images Ideology continues to trump security in the Netanyahu government’s approach to combating terrorism. As Hamas struggles to maintain its November 2012 cease-fire with Israel in the face of increasing rocket fire, mostly by al Qaeda-linked Salafi jihad factions, Israel responds by bombing Hamas facilities….
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Opinion Anne Heyman Gave Rwanda Orphans a Family
Students at Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village play basketball on a village court in May 2009. Photo: Ben Gittleson It started with a simple question. Anne Heyman and her husband, Seth Merrin, were attending a 2005 talk at Tufts University Hillel by the real-life hero of “Hotel Rwanda,” Paul Rusesabagina, when they asked him to share the…
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Opinion Ignoring My Kids — For Their Own Good
‘Mom! Hey, Mom! Look at me!” “Look at me!” has probably been a refrain of parenting small children since the days of “Mom! Look at the drawing of oxen I made on the wall of the cave!” It can seem constant: “Mom! Look how high I can go on the swing!”; “Dad! Come look at…
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