In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
Suddenly there’s a new term in our social lexicon to describe a trend both exciting and challenging: the breadwinner mom, the mother who is either the sole or primary breadwinner in her family. In 1960, only 11% of American households fit that description. Now, a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census data puts the…
There is no shortage of people willing to take a credit for the Soviet Jewry movement. Take it from me. I know this to be true. While on tour with my book, I don’t remember a single reading where someone in the audience didn’t chew me out about why their Uncle Murray wasn’t included in…
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!
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…
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…
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…
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….
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…
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…
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…
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…
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