In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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….
-
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…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Inside the ancient Christian theology driving modern antisemitism
- 2
News Jews paused Indiana’s abortion ban — by turning a religious freedom law against the evangelical right
- 3
Culture In 1989, Harold Pinter and Jerry Schatzberg made the perfect Holocaust movie for 2026
- 4
News Mamdani to attend Passover Seder as he navigates ties with Jewish groups amid rising antisemitism
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture 70 years ago, this Jewish choreographer predicted our epidemic of loneliness and isolation
-
Culture Gene Shalit, a mensch with a personality as big as his mustache, turns 100
-
Looking Forward How a song about the food chain became a Seder mainstay
-
Fast Forward Connecticut Catholic school punishes students who targeted ‘Jew Canaan’ rivals on social media
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
