Opinion

• Opinion

  News Quiz: ‘Jews’ in Senegal and a Model Prom

  Greetings! This week’s quiz takes us off on a hot date and then plunges into debt with a high-flying company that tanked. Plus we visit Milan for a treat, Senegal for a surprise and Brooklyn for a scare — and not just from the apartment prices. Take our quiz!

  By Lenore Skenazy

  < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  10-Hour Detention Teaches Lesson About Israel

  Last weekend, I was detained for 10 hours and then deported back to the U.S. after flying to Panama for a weeklong vacation. I’m starting to get over the sheer frustration about the experience, which was caused by a Panamanian rule that visitors must have at least three months on their passports to gain entry…

  By Maya Paley May 29, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The ‘Unaffiliated’ Danger Within

  Is the “unchecked growth of Jewish fundamentalism” the greatest existential threat to the fabric of American Jewish life? Our columnist Jay Michaelson seems to think so. In a passionate (some might say incendiary) column on these pages last week, Michaelson called on mainstream Jewish organizations to distance themselves from the ultra-Orthodox fundamentalist leaders who he…

  By Jane Eisner May 29, 2013 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry An Israeli media mainstay is crumbling. Will liberal democracy go with it?

  

• Emily Tamkin The fundamental miscalculation behind the GOP’s antisemitism crisis

  

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  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 May 29, 2013 | 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
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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