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
The Supreme Court’s Enigmatic Decider-in-Chief
While we’re all riveted to the hostage drama in the House of Representatives, there’s another lopsided showdown shaping up in more-or-less plain sight that puts some basic values and settled law up for grabs. Like the Capitol Hill farce, this one has a tiny band of fanatics determined to trash three generations of evolving American…
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Opinion Deb Tambor’s Bright Smile — and Potent Message
The smile — her smile — was remembered by scores of mourners. It was reflected in the crackling flames shooting out of a backyard pit, and in the grief-stricken smiles of loved ones. In a circle around the makeshift campfire, on lawn chairs set on the damp autumn ground, sat a group of people intent…
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Opinion Handshake to Hate — Caught on Video
It was almost a moving moment. A Palestinian child, only 6 years old, goes up to a Jewish child of Israeli settlers and offers him a handshake. The Palestinian boy isn’t even supposed to be there. The Israel Defense Forces closed off this area of the restive West Bank a few months ago to avoid…
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Opinion Bigger Population Estimate Means Wider Definition of Jewishness
If the United States had 6.7 million holders of a doctorate, and 1 million of these hold a doctorate partly, how many Ph.D.s are there in America? Or, to use another analogy, what’s the meaning of a partly democratic government, or of being partly pregnant? Few among the leading intellectuals in this country will object…
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Opinion Time for Rethinking What It Means To Be a Jew
Traditional Jewish sources place clear restrictions on counting people. Ironic, then, that we tend toward the obsessive about the numbers, beliefs and behaviors of our community. The Pew survey nourishes this tendency in healthy, responsible and fascinating fashion. A read of the report will find Jewish leaders drinking in the results from cups half-empty and…
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Opinion Feeding the Bad, Not the Good
David Barash, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Washington, tells an instructive story in a recent New York Times OpEd essay. The story, he tells us, is believed to be of Cherokee origin. “A girl is troubled by a recurrent dream in which two wolves fight viciously. Seeking an explanation, she goes to her…
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Opinion Increasing Diversity Means There Is No Such Thing as a Typical Jew
The findings of the Pew study point to an increasingly diverse Jewish population — one that defies generalizations. This diversity stems from several sources, especially the recent history of intermarriage and the increasing prominence and shift to the right of Orthodox Jews. Before I discuss the impact of these trends, I want to allay readers’…
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Opinion Editor’s Choice: Best From Across the Country
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. Now that the high holidays are…
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Opinion Give Us Our Gen-X Judaism
The new PEW survey on Jewish life paints a bleak picture of our future. Among the findings were the fact that 58% of Jews now marry non-Jews, two-thirds don’t belong to a synagogue and 32% of Jews born after 1980 say they have “no religion.” In response, Slate’s Jessica Grose wrote about her mixed feelings…
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Opinion My Grandfather, Butcher of ‘Schindler’s List’
When Jennifer Teege saw ‘Schindler’s List’ as a student in Israel, she was moved and horrified. But she didn’t realize she was part of the story. Now, the book that explains it is causing a firestorm in Europe. Amon: My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me explains how the half-Nigerian mother of two learned of her…
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Opinion Benjamin Netanyahu’s Warning on Iran Falls Flat
One of the Marx Brothers — I think it was Karl — once wrote that history has a way of repeating itself, “first as tragedy, then as farce.” He forgot to mention how hard it is to tell which is which. Case in point: Benjamin Netanyahu’s whirlwind, two-day United States visit at the end of…
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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Opinion The US is turning a blind eye to death and devastation — it isn’t the first time
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Opinion Actually, Trump made things between Israel and Iran way worse
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Film & TV ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ sends The Thing to shul — and gives Jack Kirby credit
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Fast Forward As starvation mounts in Gaza, Jewish voices increasingly rise up in consternation
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