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
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Opinion
Good Luck, Nate Lavey and Abigail Jones
When you run a relatively small news organization in a gigantic city, it’s inevitable that talented staff members will get recruited to bigger jobs. So it’s with a mixture of pride and sadness that I report on the departure of two respected colleagues, Nate Lavey and Abigail Jones. Both originally came here as interns, and…
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Opinion The Numbers Show an Intolerant Israel
Suddenly, there’s a torrent of data — polls of American Jewish opinion (Pew), of Israeli public opinion (Israel Democracy Institute) and illuminating reports on sundry aspects of life, here and in Israel. One such report, one that has lamentably garnered less attention than the public opinion results, is a report published by Peace Now, an…
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Opinion How I Broke ‘Cycle of Assimilation’ Away From Jewish Engagement
According to the results of the most recent Pew survey of Jewish America, I represent the best hope for the future of the Jewish people. I guess I’d better explain that one. The Pew survey found a significant rise in those who are not religious, marry outside the faith and are not raising their children…
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Opinion Editor’s Choice: Millennials Speak on Pew
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 Jewish Journal of Los…
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Opinion Take Debt Limit to Court. It’s Unconstitutional
Wait a minute: I still don’t understand why the idea of a debt ceiling is constitutional. The last I heard, the Fourteenth Amendment was still part of the Constitution. Here’s Section 4: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for…
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Opinion Is Yair Lapid’s Honeymoon Over?
The Israeli election in January was widely lauded as a testament to the revival of Israel centrism. Coming out of nowhere the brand new Yesh Atid party won 19 seats — almost a sixth of the Knesset’s mandates. Is this revival now over? A poll just conducted for the Globes financial newspaper found that if…
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Opinion Yair Lapid’s Great American Tour
Israel’s political golden boy Yair Lapid has been making the rounds in Washington this week, filling up some necessary gaps in his resume. The telegenic Lapid, who until recently was a newspaper columnist and TV host, had hardly had a chance to establish ties with the American political elite before pulling a huge surprise in…
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Opinion When Will Y.U. Learn?
When will Yeshiva University ever learn? When will modern American Orthodoxy’s flagship institution learn to own up to its mistakes, genuinely reform its procedures, live out its values and, above all, provide a safe and honest environment for its students? The latest revelation, that Y.U. hired a new faculty member who had been convicted of…
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Opinion Rachel Maddow on the ‘Hanukkah Shutdown’
Rachel Maddow commenting Wednesday night on MSNBC on the new Gallup Poll that showed the Republican Party’s approval rating plummeting to 28%, the lowest for either party since pollsters first began asking the question: “That apparently is the reward that you get if you can stretch your government shutdown to be longer than Hanukkah. It…
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Opinion Asher Lopatin Set as Modern Orthodox ‘Bridge’
When I was a kid, my mom told me, “Dress British, think Yiddish.” The credo for Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) now is “Learn ‘Litv-ish,’ daven ‘Hasid-ish,’ act ‘normal-ish.’”, according to Rabbi Daniel Landes, who on Sunday formally installed Rabbi Asher Lopatin as the second president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. The installation ceremony, held at the…
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Opinion Dude, Don’t ‘Boycott Israel’
There’s a new weapon in the anti-BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) arsenal. It’s a viral video by Cleveland-based Orthodox hip-hop artist Ari Lesser, and, based on the more than 18,000 hits it’s gotten since Monday, it’s proving to be pretty powerful. Lesser raps “Boycott Israel,” a catchy reggae number pointing out the hypocrisy of boycotting Israel…
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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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