Opinion

• Opinion

  To Grasp GOP Debt Stand, Picture a Bank Robber …

  House Speaker John Boehner is reported to have told fellow Republicans that he won’t allow the federal government to default. He said he will see to it that the debt ceiling is raised, even if it means passing a bill with the support of Democrats and a minority of Republicans. Here’s what Boehner’s spokesman Michael…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  2 min read
• Opinion

  It’s Olive War Time in West Bank

  It’s Olive War season. Unfortunately, we’re not talking about a gourmet reality television show, but rather a several-week period of clashes where Palestinians and settlers try to hit each other in their pockets, via their olive groves. In recent years, attacks by Palestinians on settler groves and vice-versa have increased significantly. Of course, it’s more…

  By Nathan Jeffay Oct 3, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  94% Proudly Jewish — So Why Dismiss Them?

  Each time the seasons change, we’re reminded of the comforting timelessness of the Jewish calendar. How each autumn brings the high holy days, with their spirit of introspection and reconciliation. How the spring brings the inspiring uplift of Passover. And every 10 years, the panic and hysteria of another Jewish population survey. The important takeaway…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 3, 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 A new humanitarian outrage is unfolding in the Middle East. It’s not in Gaza

  

• Nora Berman The left is turning on AOC over Israel — and imperiling its own agenda

  

• Dan Perry Actually, Trump made things between Israel and Iran way worse

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Who Do Jewish Leaders Really Represent?

  Asked about stats in the new Pew survey suggesting that many Jews disagree with them on Israel, leaders of Jewish organizations told me yesterday that they don’t represent every single Jew. I decided to figure out who they do represent. The Pew survey interviewed 3,500 Jewish people across the country, many of whom have little…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Oct 3, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  After #JewishAmerica Survey, What Do We Do?

  The U.S. Census Bureau asks many questions in its decennial survey of Americans, but never about their religion. The bureau considered doing it once, for the 1960 census, and actually put out a test question in March 1957. To the query “What is your religion?” 3.4% of Americans 14 years and older answered “Jewish.” After…

  Oct 3, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Palestinians Say Third Intifada Is Coming: Poll

  Almost two thirds of Palestinians think that a third intifada is round the corner if the current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks fail, according to a new poll. The Palestinian Center for Public Opinion asked Arab residents of the West Bank and Gaza whether they “anticipate the outbreak of a third Intifada in case the peace process…

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

  ‘Breaking Bad’s Jewish Lesson

  One of the most famous passages in the Hebrew Bible tells the Jewish people “what the Lord doth require of thee: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” Less remembered, but perhaps more revealing, is the preceding verse in the sixth chapter of the Book of Micah….

  By Samuel G. Freedman Oct 2, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  We’re the Jon Stewart People

  True or not, Eskimos are famed for having 40 words for snow: Jews on the other hand have Yiddish — a whole language for being funny, featuring a vowel combination that is synonymous with hilarity. Comedy, shmomedy. That turns out to be handy because Jews — at least American Jews who don’t have to worry…

  By Dan Friedman Oct 1, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Bibi’s Peace Dilemma: Defying His Own Party

  With the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations operating under a tightly sealed cone of silence imposed by Secretary of State John Kerry, Middle East policy junkies have developed an elaborate guessing game that takes the form of a will-he-or-won’t-he dissection of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intentions. The idea is to examine what’s known about Netanyahu’s past, his…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 1, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Mental Distraction on Guns

  After each mass shooting by an obviously disturbed American who indiscriminately mows down innocent civilians, the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre can always be counted on to put the problem in perspective. For LaPierre, the fact that Aaron Alexis shot and killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard on September 16 is yet another…

  Oct 1, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What Makes a Jew? It’s What You Do.

  There’s a classic story in my family about the time many years ago when we sat around the table at Aunt Sarah’s house loudly debating what it meant to be a Jew in America. Bubbe Esther, my husband’s grandmother, sat quietly in the corner until someone thought to ask her. How do you define being…

  By Jane Eisner Oct 1, 2013 | 3 min read