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
Learning To Love Chrismukkah
Like many American Jews I know — and like almost all New Yorkers — I find Christmas in Manhattan deeply evocative. I like the smell of Christmas trees and candied nuts, and I like the way Central Park twinkles, and I like the red-and-white holiday markets that pop up like sukkahs all around the city….
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Opinion Ear to the Ground, Examining Israel Feelings
Over the past year or so, alert readers have noticed a furious debate has erupted among our leading professors and pundits over the changing relationship between young American Jews and the State of Israel. It’s been a knock-down, drag-out fight among the experts, filled with name-calling and high-stakes drama. Amazingly, the combatants are mostly looking…
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Opinion What the E1 Move Says About Bibi
A 3000-acre hilly expanse of parkland that is, improbably, part of East Jerusalem has long tantalized Israeli expansionists. Construction and development in the area, known as E1, would isolate Bethlehem and Ramallah, sealing them off from the remaining Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. This would at least threaten, if not destroy, any prospect of a…
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Opinion Eli Valley Takes on the Bnai Jeshurun Rabbis
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Opinion Fizzing for Trouble With Super Bowl Ad?
Move over Bud Lite and GM, SodaStream is coming to the Super Bowl XLVII. While the Israeli-made home soda maker will not be seen in the stands, it will be viewed on TV screens across the country and around the world, making it the first Israeli product to be advertised in a Super Bowl commercial….
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Opinion Michaelson Answers Dershowitz
Here’s a thought: When you start asking lots of rhetorical questions, chances are you’re failing to understand that such questions often have answers. In Alan Dershowitz’s criticism of B’nai Jeshurun’s recent endorsement of the UN Palestine (non-member) statehood vote, he asks nine such questions. Here are some answers to them. Q: Did the rabbis realize…
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Opinion B’nai Jeshurun Rabbis Walk it Back
The saga at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun continues. Nearly a week after rabbis at the Upper West Side synagogue sent a letter to their congregation, voicing their support for the United Nations’ decision to make Palestine a nonmember observer state, an email was sent on Thursday morning to clarify the impetus behind the statement. Signed by…
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Opinion Revisiting a Soviet Jewry Milestone
The massive Soviet Jewry rally that took place in Washington 25 years ago on December 6 was a powerful event. The gathering of so many people who traveled great distances, raising a voice of Jewish conscience, of moral conscience, was unprecedented. The rally’s success remains a tribute to Natan Sharansky, one of the great heroes…
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Opinion For the Separation of Menorah and State
Each holiday season, the constitutionality of the menorah and other religious holiday displays on government property engenders fierce debates — in traditional courtrooms and in the court of public opinion. In deciding whether a public display of a menorah outside a government building violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court,…
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Opinion Jewish Lawmakers Move Up Ladder
Two Jewish lawmakers are moving up the ranks in the House of Representatives. New York’s Nita Lowey won the role of top Democrat on the House Appropriations committee and will be the first woman to ever serve as ranking member on this committee. “It is especially gratifying to be the first woman to lead either…
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Opinion B’nai Jeshurun Should Rethink Rash Statehood Support
Immediately after the General Assembly voted to accord the Palestinian Authority observer status as a state within the 1967 borders, the rabbis and lay-leadership of congregation B’nai Jeshurun, a popular synagogue in Manhattan praised the U.N. and described its vote as “a great moment for us as citizens of the world.” When they made this…
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Opinion Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go
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