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
Why American Jews Shouldn’t Be Afraid To Put Israel First
Now that distribution of its questionnaire has been canceled, the proposed poll of American Jews and Israeli immigrants to America, commissioned by a Los Angeles organization called the Israeli American Council with the initial collaboration of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, will presumably fade from the headlines. Yet the issues raised by it are real;…
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Opinion Editor’s Choice: 6 Million Recalled With Stamps
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. Stamping Out Intolerance By Melissa Gerr…
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Opinion Is Jewish Home Overplaying Hand?
In Israel over the last few months, the religious-Zionist right wing has been buoyant. Its political party, Jewish Home, reached an all time low in the 2009 general election, winning just 3 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, but then in this year’s election won a remarkable 12 seats. It had finally managed to galvanize the…
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Opinion Max Blumenthal’s ‘Goliath’ Is Anti-Israel Book That Makes Even Anti-Zionists Blush
There’s an unpleasant little debate sloshing around the Web lately that tells you all you need to know — and perhaps more than you want to hear — about the current state of relations between Israel and the left. The debate revolves around an unpleasant book published October 1 by Nation Books, titled “Goliath: Life…
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Opinion Confessions of a Jewish Halloween Grinch
At this time of year I feel like a Jewish Halloween Grinch. My children, 4, 8 and 10, are old enough to know that their mother takes no joy in Halloween. My four year old asked me, upon walking up to someoneʼs house in town, why our house isnʼt decorated for Halloween. I explain, again,…
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Opinion Roma Girl’s Deportation Drama Forces France To Relive Holocaust History
It’s déjà vu all over again for the French, with memories of the past washing up against experiences in the present. Tragically, an innocent teenage girl named Leonarda Dibrani has served as the spark for the most recent episode of this recurring national trauma. Two weeks ago, the French police stopped a bus taking Leonarda…
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Opinion When Lou Reed Partied at My Place
(JTA) — Lou Reed’s death on Sunday has made me think not just of his music but of his life, and specifically about when his life and mine briefly intersected, back when my brother Frank and I entertained him at our parents’ Philadelphia home, unbeknownst to mom and dad. It was 1969 and Frank, then…
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Opinion Should Israel Cut Hamas Some Slack Despite Terror Tunnel Discovery?
It hasn’t gotten much attention outside Israel, but that so-called terror tunnel uncovered by the Israeli military near Gaza in early October was just the tip of a major strategic dilemma confronting the Jewish state. And like so many of Israel’s puzzles these days, the debate over how to handle it is causing tension between…
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Opinion Lou Reed: The Punk Soul of an Underground Jew
Of all the tributes following the death this week of Lou Reed, the transgressive, subversive bard of the street-wild and deviant, one of the strangest is this celebration by British journalist Tom Gross, which appeared online in the National Review. Yes, that National Review—the conservative journal founded by the high priest of upper-crust propriety, William…
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Opinion Welcome to Tzedakah Club, Sandy Grandson
Our youngest grandson will turn one year old this month. He was born last October as Hurricane Sandy swept up the East Coast. He arrived in the world during a time of uncertainty, when the limits of human ingenuity were starkly visible. As his birthday approaches, I think back over the year. Despite the fact…
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Opinion It Happened on Halloween
The month of Halloween hasn’t been friendly to Anti-Defamation League Director Abraham Foxman’s position of authority in the Jewish community. In early October, Foxman batted away the findings of the Pew Research Center, which showed that a majority of American Jews were ambivalent about Israeli government policies by remarking, “This is a poll of everybody….
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Opinion The Gaza hostage crisis could forever change how American Jews relate to Israel — but it’s not too late to fix that
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקערין וויווי לאַקס באַשרײַבט געשיכטע פֿון לאָנדאָנער ייִדישער פּרעסעVIDEO: Historian Vivi Laks tells history of the London Yiddish Press
שבֿע צוקער פֿירט דעם שמועס מיט וויווי לאַקס און ביידע לייענען פֿאָר עטלעכע פֿעליעטאָנען פֿון יענע צײַטן.
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Yiddish World Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’
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News Who is Bruce Blakeman, the ‘Almost Orthodox’ Jew running for New York governor?
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