Opinion

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  Edgar Bronfman Sr. Dead at 84

  Edgar Bronfman Sr. (left) shakes hands with Swiss consul general Alfred Defago following the completion of the Swiss banks agreement, 1997. In the middle is U.S. envoy Stuart Eizenstat. (Getty Images) Edgar M. Bronfman Sr. died Saturday at age 84, the New York Times reported. The Montreal-born Bronfman was chief executive until retiring in 1994…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Debunking a Libelous Myth of American Jewish Indifference to Looming Holocaust

  Well, another year is almost finished, and good riddance. Before we say goodbye to 2013, though, we should take a moment to note one of its overlooked milestones. This was the 30th anniversary of “Indicting American Jews,” the probing, angry, magisterial essay by the late Holocaust historian Lucy Dawidowicz, published in Commentary in June 1983….

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 20, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Jewish Groups Back New Sanctions, Senators Split

  Backing new sanctions: Senators John McCain, Chuck Schumer and Bob Menendez (from June 2013) (Getty Images) The Capitol Hill debate over authorizing new sanctions on Iran is getting pretty nasty. Administration officials are warning, anonymously so far, that passage of the Robert Menendez-Mark Kirk bill to stiffen the West’s negotiating terms and compel new sanctions…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 20, 2013 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry The 3 responses to the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack that could make Jews safer

  

• Emily Tamkin The fundamental miscalculation behind the GOP’s antisemitism crisis

  

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  Opinion

  My Friends Suspected Me of Spying for Israel

  A Palestinian worker passes near the Aida refugee camp on December 21, 2005. / Getty Images Reading the recent reports about Jewish American spies like Robert Levinson and Alan Gross, I can’t help but think back on my own experiences in the Middle East. A friend and I lived and volunteered in the Aida refugee…

  By Michael Kaplan Dec 19, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  When a Jewish Child Learns To Love Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny

  (JTA) — Last spring, I found myself averting my eyes when my 4-year-old mentioned something about the Easter bunny in front of my dad. We were at my parents’ home in Michigan for Passover and my son said, “When I get back to Brooklyn, the Easter bunny is going to bring me a basket!” I…

  By Annette Powers Dec 19, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Forward on Film

  What do Hasidic hats, the Borscht Belt, the king of competitive dreidel-ing and a tiny row house shul have in common? They all played starring roles in the Forward best videos of 2013 — along with a poignant portrait of the Jewish mother who lost her son in the Newtown school massacre. This year saw…

  By Martyna Starosta Dec 19, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  13 Stories That Rattled the Shtetlsphere in 2013

  We’ve got all the Jewish names that lit up 2013, for better or worse — and everything in between. There’s Titi Aynaw, the trailblazing first black Miss Israel who parlayed her pageant win into a “dream date” with President Barack Obama. You might not recognize Jake Davidson’s name but the day school kid from Los…

  By Anne Cohen Dec 19, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Peace Now Was Wrong To Exclude Einat Wilf

  Peace Now members call for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire on January 10, 2009. / Getty Images Former Knesset member Dr. Einat Wilf was recently invited and then uninvited by the influential Israeli NGO Peace Now to participate in its annual “Conference of the Left” meeting. In attempting to justify the abrupt reversal, Yariv Oppenheimer, the organization’s…

  By Gerald M. Steinberg Dec 18, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why I Am Making ‘Aliyah’ to Reform Jewry

  (JTA) — I grew up Jewish. Simply Jewish. My late father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, raised us in an observant Orthodox household. Our lives were filled with beautiful ritual and we celebrated the wonder of a familial spiritual connection. That said, we also danced along the fine line of progressive Judaism. My father’s Torah was an…

  By Neshama Carlebach Dec 18, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Blood-Libel Trial of Mendel Beilis Reverberates a Century Later

  One hundred years ago, czarist Russia was convulsed by the “Beilis Affair” — the trial of my grandfather, Mendel Beilis, on charges that he ritually murdered a Christian child and used his blood to make matzo for Passover. Beilis was arrested in Kiev by the czarist secret police and imprisoned for more than two years,…

  By Jay Beilis Dec 18, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Now They Come for the Gays

  The Jewish community should feel a sense of déjà vu as it witnesses the government-sponsored persecution of LGBT people in Russia. We should respond with a statement of determination nearly as familiar to us as the Shema: Never again. In the 1960s, with our awareness of the Holocaust very fresh in our memory, American Jews…

  By Sharon Kleinbaum and Yelena Goltsman Dec 18, 2013 | 3 min read