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
Bibi: Peace Essential, But Won’t End Israel-Bashing
Haaretz reporter Barak Ravid writes that Secretary of State Kerry is arriving in Israel today amid “no signs” that he’s “nearing a breakthrough” toward peace talks. The funny thing is, it’s in the middle of an article that reports clear signs of a breakthrough. Specifically, he reports on a “senior Likud minister” telling him Netanyahu…
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Opinion Anti-Israel Gay Group Stirs Toronto Controversy
They’re back! And just in time for Toronto’s Gay Pride parade on Sunday, June 30. Who’s back? None other than Canada’s most high profile anti-Zionist gay organization — Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA). Formed by Toronto LGBT activists on the platform that Israel exists as an apartheid state and oppresses Palestinians — including LGBT Palestinians…
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Opinion ‘We Can Marry for Love’
Big smiles and excited eyes were all around at one Greenwich Village synagogue on Wednesday noon. Members of Beit Simchat Torah, a congregation that has been a strong advocate for LGBT rights for four decades, were stopping by to congratulate each other and celebrate the historic moment. Two hours earlier, the Supreme Court delivered landmark…
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Opinion Mixed Blessing of Supreme Court’s Decisions on Gay Marriage and Voting Rights
What does it feel like to be gay and Jewish, after the Supreme Court affirmed same-sex marriage? It depends on what being gay and being Jewish means. If these identities are like teams (or tribes) to which one belongs, then this last week was a glorious time to be gay, and a basically irrelevant one…
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Opinion Jewish Values Order Us To Protect Gay Marriage
In the early 1970s, while I was CEO of the Seagram Company, public dialogue about gay rights was largely nonexistent in corporate America. Social discourse had not yet even evolved into the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ethos that dominated the following decades. Homosexuality was simply not discussed and therefore, by implication, was shameful. During that…
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Opinion Echoes of Justice in Corners of American Life
The shouting for joy over this morning’s Supreme Court decisions had barely subsided when a long ago memory flashed into my mind. Twenty-two years ago, my partner and I were on vacation in Pennsylvania with our daughter. My partner became ill and I took her to a nearby emergency room. In this smalltown hospital. they…
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Opinion Jewish Blessings Greet Gay Marriage Ruling
News of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to pave the way to gay marriage found gay Jewish leaders at the end of a meeting with two dozen Democratic senators on Capitol Hill. A staffer passed a note to Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) reading: “DOMA is struck down” and the senator shared the news with the…
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Opinion News Quiz: Alice Walker’s Book, Chief Rabbi’s Arrest
What do Alice Walker, the Turkish prime minister and Hooters have in common? Aside from the fact they are all in this week’s news quiz? That is a good question. Feel free to tell us if you figure it out. Meantime, here goes after the jump!
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Opinion Obama Tweets ‘Love Is Love’ on Gay Marriage
President Barack Obama wasted no time hailing the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage. Within moments of the ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, the president Tweeted: Today’s DOMA ruling is a historic step forward for #MarriageEquality. #LoveIsLove. Obama later applauded the decision that makes married gay men and women eligible for federal…
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Opinion Poll: Israelis Ask US Jews’ Views. Headline: Not!
Here’s a kind of wonderfully dopey news item that appeared in the Jerusalem Post last week and then was reposted at The Tablet. That is, the news itself was perfectly legitimate, but the reporting and headlines—that is, the part that will stick in the mind of your average reader—was something else. The news: Israelis were…
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Opinion Jonathan Sacks and the Twin Danger Facing Jews
Jonathan Sacks, the outgoing British chief rabbi, is warning of a twin threat to Judaism from assimilation on the one hand and ultra-Orthodoxy on the other. At his retirement dinner, he said that “those who embrace the world and reject Judaism, and those who embrace Judaism and reject the world” represent a “global danger” to…
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