Opinion

• Opinion

  Emailing With the Pope

  Given the explosion of interest — and research — into neurochemistry, we may before too long end up with an entirely mechanistic theory of being. If a lie detector, why not a love detector? Professions of love will be trumped by chemical analysis; proof is not in the sonnets or the roses but in the…

  By Leonard Fein

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  6 Ways Michael Bloomberg Can Spend $1M Prize

  Earlier this week, a few Russian billionaires gave billionaire New York’s outgoing mayor Michael Bloomberg a $1 million dollar Jewish prize. We have some bright ideas about what he should do with all that cash. The million bucks, chump change for the richest man in New York City, came along with the Genesis Prize, bestowed…

  By Forward Staff Oct 25, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  What Do We Prize About Michael Bloomberg?

  I tried. I really did. On the morning after the Genesis Foundation announced the inaugural recipient of its prize to the most inspiring Jew in the world, I sat across a breakfast table from Natan Sharansky and listened hard to his ebullient defense of bestowing the $1 million award on Michael Bloomberg. I didn’t mention…

  By Jane Eisner Oct 25, 2013 | 3 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

  Editor’s Choice: A Victim’s Story, Jacob Pressman at 94

  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. Between Victim And Perpetrator By Maayan…

  By Forward Staff Oct 25, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Separate in Beit Shemesh?

  One of the most bitterly fought cities in Israel’s local elections held on Tuesday was Beit Shemesh, the flashpoint town near Jerusalem. Now, the government is apparently mulling a plan to prevent passions getting so high in the future. Beit Shemesh is famous for its deep tensions between Haredi and non-Haredi residents. In fact, since…

  By Nathan Jeffay Oct 24, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Thanksgivukkah’s Shared Dirty Secret

  Hanukkah and Thanksgiving occur at the same time this year. This won’t happen again for another 79,043 years, according to calculations by Jonathan Mizrahi, a quantum physicist at the Sandia National Laboratories. Many are asking what the connection is between these two holidays. Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert even did a spoof on it. On a…

  By Eliyahu Federman Oct 24, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  4 Things To Do About Pew Survey Findings on #JewishAmerica

  The Pew Research Center’s “Portrait of Jewish Americans” has triggered much debate in the Jewish community. Its key findings — that younger Jews are not only less connected to, but are also less interested in, Jewish life — puts in sharp relief the challenge before us. If we go by numbers alone, the non-Orthodox American…

  By Jerry Silverman and Michael Siegal Oct 24, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Nir Barkat Win Boosts Secular Jerusalem

  Jerusalem’s mayor Nir Barkat, widely credited with shoring up Jerusalem’s secular credentials, has won another five-year term in the local election. Like other cities across Israel, Jerusalem held local elections yesterday. But while in most other locales the races were mostly about schooling and clean streets, in Jerusalem the race became about deeper issues of…

  By Nathan Jeffay Oct 23, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Sandy, a Year Later

  It’s been a year since the ferocious winds and voluminous rain of Hurricane Sandy left parts of the East Coast crippled and gasping for breath. The dead have been buried, the flood waters have receeded, most public services have been restored and the nation’s attention has drifted away. But look closely: The signs of destruction…

  Oct 23, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  J Street Students Speak Out On Being Shut Out of Jewish Debate at Berkeley

  The recent decision by the Jewish Student Union at the University of California, Berkeley to reject an application for membership from J Street U points to a deep problem in the American Jewish community. As leaders of J Street U at Berkeley who love Israel but worry about its future, we found this decision strange…

  By Shayna Howitt and Elon Rov Oct 23, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Jewrotica’s Unsexy List of the Hottest Rabbis

  When it comes to looking for sexy Rabbis, the editors of Jewrotica.com could stand to take their cues from the Talmud. Deep within in the book of Bava Metzia, Rabbi Yochanan, Rabbi Yishmael bar’Rebbi Yosi, and Rav Papa — taking a break, presumably, from their usual halachic debates over usury and property ownership — are…

  By Rafi Samuels-Schwartz Oct 22, 2013 | 3 min read