Opinion

• Opinion

  Heaven Can Wait for $100K Jewish eBay Guy

  Ari Mandel says heaven can wait, eBay can keep its rules — and one deep-pocketed online bidder can keep his or her $100,000. The Jewish man who sparked a frenzied day of bidding by auctioning off a prime spot in heaven — a spiral that reached six figures before the online giant shut it down…

  By Debra Nussbaum Cohen

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  eBay Kills 100K Bid for Jewish Spot in Heaven

  Want to make sure you land a spot in heaven? No need to bother yourself with fulfilling commandments or doing good deeds. But it’s definitely going to cost you plenty. Bidders flooded eBay with bids for “My Portion in Olam Habaah (Heaven),” which has been listed for sale by a Jewish man from Teaneck, N.J….

  By Debra Nussbaum Cohen May 28, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Baby Steps To Restoring Memory of Kosovo Jews

  There is no longer a Jewish community in Pristina, the capital of the newly independent country of Kosovo. Through flight, deportation, aliyah, and intermarriage, Jewish Pristina has over the past seventy years gradually diminished into non-existence. During the era when Kosovo formed part of Yugoslavia, the government in Belgrade did not do much to discourage…

  By Liam Hoare May 28, 2013 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman There’s a shocking new report on civilian deaths in Gaza. If only it were accurate.

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s new gift to the far right could help end the Gaza war

  

• Emily Tamkin Entering motherhood — and an obsession with the works of an Italian Jewish literary hero

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Right Rips Peres for Citing ‘67 Lines (P.S.: He Didn’t)

  A funny thing happened to Israeli figurehead president Shimon Peres on his way to the World Economic Forum. Scheduled to address a gathering of Middle Eastern political and business leaders at a Jordanian Dead Sea conference center on Sunday evening, the 89-year-old elder statesman came under furious attack from Likud cabinet ministers Sunday afternoon for…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 28, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Your Six Word Gift For Dad

  With Father’s Day just around the corner, today is your last day to submit your six word tribute on your Jewish father or grandfather. The Forward’s six-word memoir project is conducted in conjunction with Larry Smith, editor of SMITH Magazine, home of the Six-Word Memoir®. Larry and the Forward staff will pick our 12 favorites…

  By Forward Staff May 28, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  A Woman’s Place is at Prayer — at Kotel or Upper West Side

  Nearly 20 years ago I was living on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a haven for observant Conservative Jews. I had my choice of multiple minyanim to attend; even the crowded weekend city streets had an air of the Sabbath, and kosher food abounded. There were so many Conservative and egalitarian options that I rarely ventured…

  By Leah Bieler May 28, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Memorial Day, My very personal national holiday

  In which the author remembers his Uncle Morey

  By J.J. Goldberg May 27, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Creeping Jewish Fundamentalism in Our Midst

  American Jews are actively supporting a demographic trend that threatens the fabric of American Jewish life: the unchecked growth of Jewish fundamentalism. Call them what you will — ultra-Orthodox Jews, “fervently Orthodox” Jews, Haredim, black hats. They will soon become the majority of affiliated Jews in the metropolitan New York area, and the religious majority…

  By Jay Michaelson May 27, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Ultra-Orthodox Bring Pride, Charity and Vitality Back to Jewish People

  In the summer of 1979, my wife and I came to Jerusalem on our honeymoon. I had completed two years of big-firm legal practice in Chicago and was headed to the Jewish Theological Seminary rabbinical program in the fall. I soon left the preparatory program for which we had come, and my wife and I…

  By Jonathan Rosenblum May 27, 2013 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  An Israeli Disconnect on the Two-State Solution

  Something important happened in Israel’s Knesset the other day. It was one of those incidents you might be tempted to ignore — just another spat over peace, Palestinians and territories. On examination, though, what happened May 21 could tell you a lot about Israel’s complicated diplomatic position right now. It also helps explain some of…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 27, 2013 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Fire Island: Like Israel for Gays

  “The Pines is to gay people what Israel is to Jews. It’s the spiritual homeland.” That’s how journalist-turned developer Andrew Kirtzman described The Pines, a largely gay male enclave on idyllic Fire Island, the 31-mile-long strip of land just south of Long Island, about a 1-1/2-hour drive east of New York City. “There’s just a…

  By Michael Kaminer May 27, 2013 | < 1 min read