Opinion

• Opinion

  Six Words for the (Bad) Jewish Mother

  For Mother’s Day, the Forward challenged you, our readers, to write six-word memoirs encapsulating your mothers — and then we picked 12 winners who penned sweet and silly salutes. In the process of sifting through your six-word submissions, we learned something important: mommy issues abound in the Jewish world. While most of the memoirs were…

  By Naomi Zeveloff

  < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Kotel Miracle: No Stone Throwers Killed by Cops

  There must have been divine intervention at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Friday, when no one was killed or injured by the volley of police fire that surely must have been unleashed at the rioters who threw stones at Jewish worshipers that morning. If memory serves, that is what the police do when people…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 12, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Anger Is Missing Ingredient in Making Unions Strong Again

  The AFL-CIO posts the following question on it Web site: “The sustained war on workers from the right has left unions trying to prevent rights from being weakened rather than setting the agenda. Where are the opportunities to play some offense?” The answers are all over the lot; no coherent agenda is evident. But that…

  By Leonard Fein May 11, 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

  Kotel Ball Is in Tzipi Livni’s Court

  Could Tzipi Livni be sweetening feminists before dropping a bombshell? As discussed earlier on Forward Thinking, Justice Minister Livni has just announced that she is working on legislation to criminalize the exclusion of women from the public sphere. The timing is interesting — just as she could find herself in a very awkward position on…

  By Nathan Jeffay May 10, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Church of Scotland Insults Jews With Denial of Claim to Israel

  The injection of theology into the Israeli-Palestinian real estate dispute has rarely proved helpful, particularly in cases where one side seeks to make a claim to all the land at the expense of the other. The Church of Scotland’s laughably regressive new document, “The Inheritance of Abraham?: A Report on the ‘Promised Land,” which wilfully…

  By Liam Hoare May 10, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Thin Line Between Hate and Free Speech

  If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering where to draw the line between free speech, which should be defended, and hate speech, which should be combated. Well, I’ve found some useful insight in a series of articles that appeared the Jewish Tribune, the weekly journal of B’nai B’rith Canada. I’m not sure the articles were…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 10, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Jack Lew’s New and Improved John Hancock

  When President Obama nominated Jack Lew to be his next treasury secretary, he could not avoid teasing Lew for his only known fault – his illegible signature. “Jack assures me that he is going to work to make at least one letter legible in order not to debase our currency should he be confirmed as…

  By Nathan Guttman May 9, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Thanks, Haredim!

  Are the days numbered for second-class citizenship for women in Israel? Following two announcements in two days, it seems the exclusion of women from Israel’s public sphere may finally be nearing an end. The Attorney General Wednesday recommended criminalizing behavior that stops women from receiving “public services with equal conditions.” And today, Justice Minister Tzipi…

  By Nathan Jeffay May 9, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  The Case for a New Kotel

  To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of a bold plan to provide equal space for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem are greatly exaggerated. But that doesn’t mean they may not become true. Which is why it is so important that American Jews find every bit of common ground they can…

  May 9, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Mark Sanford Wins: When Party Trumps Character?

  It’s sort of fun watching Democrats and liberals do headstands over the political redemption of Mark Sanford, the disgraced Republican ex-governor of South Carolina who was handily elected to the House of Representatives in a special election. Here was a champion of conservative values who narrowly escaped impeachment just four years ago after disappearing from…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 9, 2013 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Quiz: Warren Buffett and BBQ Joint’s Jewish Plan

  Welcome, readers! This week’s news quiz takes us from ultra-Orthodox England to Corky’s Ribs & BBQ in Memphis, Tenn. with a stop by Warren Buffett’s brain and heart to see what he believes in! And was that Kentucky Senator Rand Paul we just glimpsed? Did he really…?

  By Lenore Skenazy May 8, 2013 | < 1 min read