Opinion

• 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…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis

  3 min read
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  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…

  Oct 3, 2013 | 4 min read
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  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…

  By Nathan Jeffay Oct 2, 2013 | 2 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz My summer plans prove it: The Jewish Catskills are alive and kicking

  

• Rob Eshman ‘Remember the Liberty’ has become code for ‘Israel Is Evil’ 

  

• Dan Perry The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel

  

• Emily Tamkin Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point

  

• Jay Michaelson When it comes to Israel/Palestine, everyone is sure that everyone else is a bigot

  

The Latest

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  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….

  By Samuel G. Freedman Oct 2, 2013 | 4 min read
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  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…

  By Dan Friedman Oct 1, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Bibi’s Peace Dilemma: Defying His Own Party

  With the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations operating under a tightly sealed cone of silence imposed by Secretary of State John Kerry, Middle East policy junkies have developed an elaborate guessing game that takes the form of a will-he-or-won’t-he dissection of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intentions. The idea is to examine what’s known about Netanyahu’s past, his…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 1, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Mental Distraction on Guns

  After each mass shooting by an obviously disturbed American who indiscriminately mows down innocent civilians, the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre can always be counted on to put the problem in perspective. For LaPierre, the fact that Aaron Alexis shot and killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard on September 16 is yet another…

  Oct 1, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What Makes a Jew? It’s What You Do.

  There’s a classic story in my family about the time many years ago when we sat around the table at Aunt Sarah’s house loudly debating what it meant to be a Jew in America. Bubbe Esther, my husband’s grandmother, sat quietly in the corner until someone thought to ask her. How do you define being…

  By Jane Eisner Oct 1, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Is Pope Francis Most Small-C Catholic Pontiff Ever?

  There has been near-universal joyous reaction to Pope Francis’s recent proclamation that the Roman Catholic Church needs to focus less on issues like homosexuality, abortion and contraception and more on other, deeper spiritual matters. The Holy Father has been lauded for his humility, and his reasoned stance that the Church needs to find a new…

  By Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin Sep 30, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Halacha at the Crosswalk

  The recent incident this past Yom Kippur involving a woman in Jacksonville, Florida who was killed while crossing an intersection with dangerously fast cars was very tragic indeed. It not only left the sixteen year old daughter who was with her with life-threatening injuries, it left her orphaned r”l. This young lady had lost her…

  By Yair Hoffman Sep 30, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Can Catholic Church Thrive Without ‘Obsession’ on Gays and Abortion?

  Like every other gay person I know, I rejoiced at the recent statement by Pope Francis I that, in his view, the Catholic Church has been overly “obsessed” with homosexuality, abortion and birth control. For one thing, I hope that the pope’s statement ends the massive crusade on the part of the United States Conference…

  By Jay Michaelson Sep 30, 2013 | 4 min read