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
Why Christmas Is America’s Storybook Holiday for All
Growing up, my family’s Jewish identity was rooted more in what we didn’t do rather than what we did. Keep kosher. Not so much. Observe the Sabbath? Nominally. Regularly attend synagogue? Once a month at best. But boy were we proud, even eager, to abstain from anything and everything that we considered goyish. These included,…
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Opinion Watch Limmud Live From Britain
The Limmud conference starts today and continues through Thursday. The Forward is exclusively providing the live stream of the event in North America.
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Opinion A Mideast Peace ‘Bridge’ Too Far?
A few weeks ago, President Barack Obama revealed that the current objective of American-led Israeli-Palestinian talks about a two-state solution is a “framework agreement.” This document, he explained, would not “address every single detail, but gets us to a point where everybody recognizes [that it is] better to move forward than [to] move backwards.” Secretary…
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Opinion Jonathan Pollard and the Spying-on-Israel Scandal
Israelis call for the release of Jonathan Pollard on March 19, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel. “Hypocritical.” “Illegitimate.” “Unacceptable.” All these words and more are being used in Israeli political circles to describe Friday’s revelation that the NSA spied on former prime minister Ehud Olmert and former defense minister Ehud Barak in 2009. And how does…
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Opinion News Quiz: Hitler, Sarah Silverman and Grace Kelly
Hitler, Sarah Silverman and Jonah Hill walk into a news quiz. You just know it has to be this one, right? Come on — what other news quiz could it possibly be?
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Opinion Edgar Bronfman, Prince of the Jews
(JTA) — In the coming days, many eulogies will attempt to capture the magnitude of the loss suffered this week by the Jewish community. Really, though, all you need are eight words: Edgar Bronfman was a prince of his people. There are other machers who devote much of their time and money to Jewish causes. But…
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Opinion Should Rabbis Marry Outside the Faith?
A rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College, the Reform movement’s central rabbinical school, set off a revealing internal spat when he wrote an op-ed questioning the school’s policy on rabbis and intermarriage. Officially no student at the school is allowed to date or marry a non-Jewish partner. The debate illuminated the Reform movement’s tricky balance:…
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Opinion How Should We Feel About the Pew Study of #JewishAmerica?
A survey of the state of American Jewry conducted by the venerable Pew Research Center dropped like a bomb in October. The numbers seemed to augur a dramatic change in American Jewish life, with intermarriage increasing, religious observance by the non-Orthodox decreasing, and a general sense that Jewish identity was fading. Commentary and analysis proliferated,…
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Opinion It’s a Christmas Tree, Stupid
In a Yuletide shift, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee finally agreed to call a 17-foot statehouse spruce a Christmas tree, admitting that his past practice of calling it a “holiday tree” generated too much anger. No kidding. Naming a Christmas tree a holiday tree or Hanukkah bush should be offensive to both the religious and…
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Opinion American Jew Struggles With Divided Emotions at Ukraine Rally
(JTA) — As I stood as one of the few Americans among the masses of protesters at Kiev’s Independence Square, the frigid cold reminded me that this was my fourth year trying to survive a harsh Ukrainian winter. The crowd seemed be warming up thanks to the incessant chants – and hot breath – that…
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Opinion Al Goldstein and Me
There are many words to describe Screw Magazine publisher Al Goldstein: vile, repugnant, crass, filthy, grotesque and even downright disgusting. His obituary in the New York Times referred to him as “scabrous” — a high-brow description for him that only the Old Gray Lady would use. The Brooklyn-born Jew, who died last week at age…
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקערין וויווי לאַקס באַשרײַבט געשיכטע פֿון לאָנדאָנער ייִדישער פּרעסעVIDEO: Historian Vivi Laks tells history of the London Yiddish Press
שבֿע צוקער פֿירט דעם שמועס מיט וויווי לאַקס און ביידע לייענען פֿאָר עטלעכע פֿעליעטאָנען פֿון יענע צײַטן.
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Yiddish World Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’
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Culture We tried to fix Hallmark’s Hanukkah problem. Here’s the movie we made instead
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Fast Forward Holocaust survivor event features a Rob Reiner video address — recorded just weeks before his death
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