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
Nir Barkat Win Boosts Secular Jerusalem
Jerusalem’s mayor Nir Barkat, widely credited with shoring up Jerusalem’s secular credentials, has won another five-year term in the local election. Like other cities across Israel, Jerusalem held local elections yesterday. But while in most other locales the races were mostly about schooling and clean streets, in Jerusalem the race became about deeper issues of…
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Opinion Sandy, a Year Later
It’s been a year since the ferocious winds and voluminous rain of Hurricane Sandy left parts of the East Coast crippled and gasping for breath. The dead have been buried, the flood waters have receeded, most public services have been restored and the nation’s attention has drifted away. But look closely: The signs of destruction…
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Opinion J Street Students Speak Out On Being Shut Out of Jewish Debate at Berkeley
The recent decision by the Jewish Student Union at the University of California, Berkeley to reject an application for membership from J Street U points to a deep problem in the American Jewish community. As leaders of J Street U at Berkeley who love Israel but worry about its future, we found this decision strange…
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Opinion Jewrotica’s Unsexy List of the Hottest Rabbis
When it comes to looking for sexy Rabbis, the editors of Jewrotica.com could stand to take their cues from the Talmud. Deep within in the book of Bava Metzia, Rabbi Yochanan, Rabbi Yishmael bar’Rebbi Yosi, and Rav Papa — taking a break, presumably, from their usual halachic debates over usury and property ownership — are…
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Opinion Qatar’s Growing Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Qatar’s two-faced policy towards Israel was on display this week, as Doha hosted a competition of FINA, the international governing body of swimming and other water sports. Members of Israel’s national team were granted visas to the Gulf monarchy where Israeli passports are normally rejected, and there were no boycotts of competitions against Israelis. But…
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Opinion ADL’s ‘Top 10 Anti-Israel Groups’: Blacklists Return
In June 2012, an anti-Israel billboard campaign was promoted in Los Angeles County by an organization with the cumbersome name of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. The group announced the billboard campaign in a press release that went on to warn that the “Israel lobby” might try to stop the campaign. It…
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Opinion American Jews Should Own Their Success!
If you’ve read my previous columns, you know I believe in the centrality of Israel in Jewish civilization, that in the past few decades, Israel has transformed from being a project of world Jewry into becoming its beating heart, and that the future of Jewish creativity, confidence and influence are going to happen primarily in…
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Opinion News Quiz: Bloomberg’s Prize, Jewish Strippers and More!
Impressionists, Islamists and Jewish strippers — you KNOW there’s only one place to find them all: your weekly Jewish news quiz. Also making appearances this week: Mayor Bloomberg, disco and Eggnog. Yup. Eggnog.
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Opinion What an iPhone Feud Says About the Ancient Fight for Jerusalem
In the story of Cain and Abel, it says: “And Cain said to Abel his brother…” (Genesis 4:8) But what did Cain say? There is nothing in the text about what he said to his brother. The ancient rabbis imagined an entire conversation between the brothers. And what was the conversation about? One ancient sage…
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Opinion Reviving Rabin in the Diaspora
In the years immediately following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the anniversary of his passing became an important event for British Jewry, only to see it weaken as the years passed, the peace process fell apart, and the image of Rabin faded like an old photograph. This year, however, offered some hope for a burnishing…
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Opinion There Is Another Way To Get a ‘Get’
In early October, the FBI arrested 10 men accused of running a torture-for-hire service for more than two decades, having uncovered evidence of more than two dozen victims during multiple raids in New York and New Jersey. But what has turned the story into a national headline is the identity of the alleged ringleaders. According…
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Culture ‘My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish’ — the Knicks chant capturing New York’s soul
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Opinion The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel
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Opinion Cultural boycotts of Israel just reached peak absurdity
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Film & TV In ‘Disclosure Day,’ Steven Spielberg finds himself at odds with Jewish thought about aliens
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