Opinion

• Opinion

  News Quiz: Kosher Starbucks, Anthony Weiner

  Anthony Weiner, Elliot Spitzer and Bernie Goetz. They’re back, in this week’s quiz. The latest item to wow visitors to Kosherfest? It’s here, too, because, like those men, it’s as Jewish and strange as it Goetz. <a href=”http://theforward.polldaddy.com/s/jew-hear-about-2″>View Survey</a>

  By Lenore Skenazy

  < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Gaza Teens Marry, Cars Run on Fumes — and Isolated Hamas Eyes a Way Out

  The wedding photos tell a startling story: a Palestinian bride and groom, just 14 and 15 years old, respectively, tie the knot in a small village in the Gaza Strip. The half dozen images included a few lines of impressionistic commentary from the Reuters shutterbug who took them. It quickly began to make the rounds…

  By Jose Vericat Nov 8, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Editor’s Choice: Remember Kristallnacht, Torah of Drones

  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. From the Baltimore Jewish Times: “Kristallnacht:…

  By Forward Staff Nov 7, 2013 | 2 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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Avigdor Lieberman Acquittal Upends Israel Politics

  Israeli politics were turned upside down this week by the surprise acquittal on Wednesday of Avigdor Lieberman, the blunt-talking, Arab-bashing, Soviet-born former foreign minister and head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party. He had been charged with fraud, witness tampering and breach of trust for allegedly promoting a crony to an ambassadorship. The promotion was allegedly…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 7, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Who Poisoned Yasser Arafat? The Palestinians.

  Inside Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters, the top military and political and money men of the Palestine Liberation Organizaion would speak about their leader in hushed, nervous tones. They told of a chairman who was falling apart. He wore unwashed clothes. He rambled about the old days in Beirut. Then he was gone. Poisoned with polonium,…

  By Matthew Kalman and Matt Rees Nov 7, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel Discovers Jewish Diaspora Crisis in Confidence

  With the startling results of the Pew survey on American Jewish identity still echoing loudly around the globe, this was a fortuitous moment for an international Jewish summit to convene in Jerusalem and hash out strategies for shoring up the next generation. In fact the two-day summit, beginning November 6 and involving some 120 community…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 7, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Brad Ausmus Talks Jews and Baseball

  Brad Ausmus was named the Detroit Tigers manager this week, making him the sixth Jew to lead a Major League club. As a player, he was an All-Star catcher for the Tigers, a three time Gold Glove winner playing for the Astros and possessor of the third-best lifetime fielding average of any catcher in major…

  By Larry Ruttman Nov 6, 2013 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Fight for Chained Wives Goes Online

  (JTA) — The websites look like those of political prisoners. Under the caption “Free Tamar Now!” there is a close-up photo of demonstrators with signs and megaphones. “Stop the abuse,” one sign reads. But FreeTamar.org and the Free Gital Facebook group seek emancipation not from literal bars or chains. Rather, they seek liberation for agunot…

  By Talia Lavin Nov 6, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Is Orthodoxy Packing Up Big Tent?

  Readers of Israel’s Haaretz.com, many of them liberal and secular, must have been surprised to read, in late October, a public manifesto, signed by 42 members of the Rabbinical Council of America castigating “Open Orthodox rabbis and leaders” in the United States. The signatories — none of them, it should be noted, an officer of…

  By Jonathan Sarna Nov 6, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Tall (Reform) Rabbi in Sea of Black Hats

  More than 5,000 Chabad rabbis and supporters gathered on Sunday for the 30th annual conference of international Shluchim, or messengers of the Hasidic movement. Former U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman addressed the crowd as the first keynote speaker. Rabbi Dov Greenberg, Chabad rabbi at Stanford University, told the crowd that you are more likely to find…

  By Eliyahu Federman Nov 5, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  How Conservative Judaism Lost Me

  One of the most striking findings in the recent Pew Research Center survey on Jews in America is the massive decline of Conservative Judaism. While 43% of American Jews affiliated as Conservative Jews in 1990, just 18% do so today. This is causing much soul-searching in the Conservative movement. The reasons for this decline are…

  By Michah Gottlieb Nov 5, 2013 | 5 min read