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
As Iran Prepares Another Sham Vote, Action Is More Important Than Ever
As Iran approaches another fraudulent presidential election on June 14, it is important to remember the 2009 protests in Iran over the results of the rigged election. The heart-wrenching picture of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who was shot dead by regime thugs, was not an isolated event. Neda’s tragic death should serve as a…
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Opinion In Syria, 2 Clashing Goals: End Killing or Stop Iran
Now that the White House has officially acknowledged the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons, the question is no longer whether we get involved in the Syrian civil war, but how. This represents a victory for the smallish, outspoken group of liberal interventionists who have been arguing for an American military role, while trying to…
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Opinion Anti-Orthodox Profiling Let Women Pray at Kotel
At Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, the use of racial profiling is so controversial that it is the subject of a legal challenge by human rights advocates. But what about a different type of profiling — religious profiling — and of all places at the Western Wall? As we reported, the tables were turned at the…
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Opinion The Maharat Movement
A telling sign that the first-ever graduation ceremony for Yeshivat Maharat was going to be different from other rabbinical ordinations came in an email message sent several weeks before the June 16 event. “We will be offering child care during the ceremony!” it read. This was clearly a ceremony created by women for women, reflecting…
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Opinion News Quiz: Coke’s Creation and Google’s Big Buy
Pot, pork, pastrami: You can choose your vice in this week’s quiz, which also happens to include questions about Coke, wine and “Mad Men.” We’re going all Don Draper on you. Or at least Michael Ginsberg. Take the quiz after the jump.
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Opinion Everyday ‘Apartheid’ and the Liberal Dream
The following items appeared in the Israeli media this month: Superland, an amusement park outside Tel Aviv, makes a policy of reserving separate days for Israeli Arab high school classes and separate ones for Israeli Jewish classes. A Jewish community pool in the Negev refused to admit a group of Bedouin children with cancer because,…
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Opinion What Does Jewish Law Say About NSA Snooping Scandal?
As the drama of the massive National Security Agency tapping of telephone lines and surveillance of Internet sites keeps unfolding, it is fascinating to trace the fundamental questions at the heart of this story back to the early stages of Jewish ethical discourse. It is tempting to think of the moral dilemma of national security…
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Opinion Did Rabbi’s Forged Letter Boost Anti-Draft Rally?
Was the weekend rally in New York against Israel’s plans to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews boosted by a prominent rabbi’s forged endorsement? According to a writer on the Hasidic Yiddish forum KaveShtiebel.com, a letter in support of the Satmar-led demonstration by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the foremost leaders of the Lithuanian Haredi sector, was forged….
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Opinion What Fury Over Iconic Video of Palestinian Boy Says About Israel
The death of Mohammed al-Dura, the 12-year-old Palestinian boy whose iconic last moments have been captured on postage stamps all over the Middle East, happened almost a year before the September 11 attacks, on September 30, 2000. Thirteen years have passed since a cameraman for France 2 captured the horrifying scene of a father and…
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Opinion How Bibi’s Right Flank Maneuvers To Box Him In
The guessing game continues: Will he or won’t he? Will Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree to open peace negotiations with the Palestinians on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative — meaning, in effect, agreeing to start from the pre-1967 armistice lines as the basis for negotiating future borders? Netanyahu is under pressure. He…
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Opinion The Kotel is for Us, Too
At the Kotel, the Jewish value of elu v’elu (“These and these are the words of the living God”) has degenerated into name-calling as well as into rock, trash and coffee throwing. These objectors claim that the women who come together on Rosh Hodesh — the beginning of the Jewish month — to pray in…
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