Opinion

• Opinion

  Orthodox Push Back on Kotel

  The rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz isn’t opposed to the plan for an egalitarian prayer section there, he announced in a statement emailed to reporters yesterday. But it’s already clear that he doesn’t speak for the Haredi mainstream. Rabinowitz is Haredi, but softer on religious issues than most Haredi leaders. This is partly…

  By Nathan Jeffay

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Reimagining the Kotel

  We tend to think of the Kotel, the massive white stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, as a scene frozen in time, ancient and immutable — men praying on one side, women on another, a strictly Orthodox synagogue on Judaism’s holiest plot of land. But the mechitzah separating men and women has been there…

  Apr 11, 2013 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Today’s Climate Shocker: Plains Blizzard (Sandy 2?)

  Still think the climate isn’t changing? Here’s one for the record books: an unusually fierce spring storm system on Tuesday brings record breaking blizzards to South Dakota, Nebraska, ice storms as far south as Oklahoma. Winter storm warnings stretched from Utah to Minnesota on Tuesday, said the Washington Post weather blog. NBC News reported temperature…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 10, 2013 | 2 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 is not deliberately killing journalists in Gaza. But it does bear responsibility for their deaths

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s attack on George Soros is ludicrous. It also endangers Jews (and everyone else)

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Mayor Anthony Weiner? It Could Happen.

  A ho-hum New York City mayoral race just got a whole lot more interesting. Sext scandal-ridden former congressman Anthony Weiner announced, a few paragraphs into a laudatory New York Times Magazine profile, that he’s considering joining the crowded Democratic field. That could shake up allegiances among New York City’s political clans, including some city Jews….

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Apr 10, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Cries From Within

  Horace Mann. Poly Prep. Deerfield Academy. The scourge of sexual abuse has not bypassed some of the nation’s most exclusive names in education, as each of these schools now must confront charges of inappropriate, perhaps illegal, certainly immoral behavior by some of their teachers. Each case is different, of course, but the stories contain a…

  Apr 10, 2013 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Kerry’s New Road Map for a Mideast Peace Deal

  From Tuesday’s Yediot Ahronot, as translated in the emailed Daily News Update of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace comes a fairly detailed description by Alex Fishman of John Kerry’s game plan for restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Fishman is Yediot’s veteran, impeccably well-sourced military affairs correspondent. He attributes this information to…

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

  The Tipping Point?

  For all the excitement and drama of the new parties and fresh faces in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, one thing has stayed depressingly constant: The paltry number of women in the Israeli cabinet. True, the count increased by one — from three in the last government, to four. And technically, the percentage…

  Apr 9, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘Dormant’ Arab Peace Plan Gets Annual Tune-up

  American and Israeli press outlets (Washington Post/AP, Detroit Free Press, Times of Israel, Arutz Sheva/Israel National News) are carrying unsourced reports that Secretary of State Kerry, currently visiting Turkey, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, is hoping to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on the basis of the “dormant” Arab Peace Initiative, which is “suddenly” springing back…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 9, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Margaret Thatcher: The Feminist Challenge

  Margaret Thatcher was a challenge to most feminists, myself included. She was well into her second term as Britain’s first woman prime minister when I moved to London as a foreign correspondent. Beneath the polished veneer that so tantalized Americans at that time, Britain was in utter turmoil — bludgeoned by terrorist violence, divided by…

  By Jane Eisner Apr 8, 2013 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Europe’s Foundation of Ashes and Dust

  Europe’s foundations are constructed upon ashes and dust. They are built where the walls of the ghettos were once erected around overcrowded quarters in Warsaw, Łódź, and Krakow. They are built upon the pits of Babi Yar and the mass graves made across Poland, Russia, and the Ukraine. They are built upon the ruins of…

  By Liam Hoare Apr 8, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  No Need To Say We’re Sorry

  The Israeli government indeed owed someone the apology it made recently for the incident of the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship intercepted in May 2010 on its way to blockaded Gaza, but it wasn’t the ship’s passengers or the government of Turkey. It was, first and foremost, the naval commandoes who boarded the Mavi Marmara…

  By Hillel Halkin Apr 8, 2013 | 3 min read