Opinion

• Opinion

  Hidden Victims of Russia’s Adoption Ban

  I used to see them fairly often in airports, nicer hotels or restaurants. Living in Eastern Europe, first as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine and later working for a non-profit in Russia, I’d become adept at spotting other Americans in public. I sized them up, taking into account the color and style of their…

  By Susan Armitage

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Post-Romney Agenda for Jewish Conservatives

  If President Obama can get around to it, his second term is likely to focus on one more big legislative ambition: immigration reform. The outlines of such a reform effort are relatively unknown. Other than some kind of legal status for those here illegally, it’s not immediately clear what Obama would want to achieve, or…

  By Noam Neusner Jan 3, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Questions for Yeshiva

  On December 13, the Forward published an explosive story by our Paul Berger detailing how Yeshiva University for years ignored students who claimed that they were sexually abused by two former staff members at Y.U.’s high school for boys in Manhattan. For that story, Berger spoke to four students who voluntarily offered their accounts. Since…

  Jan 2, 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 Charlie Kirk and Alan Berg: 2 murders, 41 years apart, show the painful perils of polarization

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s strike in Qatar: An audacious bid for victory, or just another foolhardy provocation?

  

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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Too Sexy for Limmud?

  Limmud is supposed to be a big tent. But it apparently isn’t expansive enough to accommodate one author’s broad backside. The rear end in question belongs to provocative author and spoken word artist Vanessa Hidary on the cover of her memoir, “The Last Kaiser Roll in the Bodega.” A drawing of Hidary, known at The…

  By Renee Ghert-Zand Jan 1, 2013 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Are Israeli Right-Wingers Hungry for Peace?

  A pair of new polls indicates that right-wing Israelis are surprisingly open to a peace deal with the Palestinians. The polls laid out a two-state-solution scenario to Israelis and asked them if they would back it. Among voters of Likud-Beytenu, the right-wing coaltion that is expected to win the January election, in a Smith Institute…

  By Nathan Jeffay Dec 31, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  When Jews Get Embarassed Too Easily

  Jews are image conscious. A quick Google search of “embarrassed to be Jewish” will turn up two main hits—Jews ashamed of the state of Israel, and Jews ashamed of the behavior of certain “Hareidim” — tremblers, the Hebrew term for the ultra-Orthodox — in the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh. I should amend that statement:…

  By Batya Ungar-Sargon Dec 31, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Jewish Year Gone By and One To Come

  To understand where you’re headed, it’s said, first understand where you’ve been. With that in mind, what can 2012 teach us about 2013? Presidential campaign 2012. Both parties spent prodigiously wooing swing-state Jewish voters, while pundits insisted Jewish votes are insignificant. Consider: Florida’s Jews voted 66% for Obama despite intense GOP efforts (led by Sheldon…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 31, 2012 | 5 min read
• Letters

  Abandoned

  In two recent columns, on November 16 and December 21, J.J. Goldberg has written of the Senate coalition that consisted of Southern Democrats and conservative Republicans from the prairie and mountain states that blocked efforts to admit Jewish refugees in the 1930s and 1940s. He ignores, however, the actual men who were responsible for these…

  Dec 30, 2012 | < 1 min read
• Letters

  True Help

  In his recent piece “Who Benefits From Service Trips?” (November 16), Brent Spodek highlights an issue that has long troubled many of us in the Jewish volunteer world: Sometimes service-learning trips for Jews in their 20s and 30s focus more on cultivating “effective Jewish citizens” than on working with communities that could benefit from volunteer…

  Dec 30, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  It’s Shimon vs. Bibi, Again

  Israeli President Shimon Peres has locked horns again with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two men have a troubled relationship, and in the summer had a very tense month after Peres went against Netanyahu’s position on Iran. Speaking to a large gathering of Israeli diplomats, Peres heaped praise on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas — a…

  By Nathan Jeffay Dec 30, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Orthodox Jews Face a Moment of Reckoning

  After the verdict in the infamous Nechemya Weberman trial was announced, the Satmar community found itself reeling. This story of an unlicensed therapist who for years was sexually abusing a young girl multiple times a week has inflamed our passions to unprecedented levels, and rightfully so. But now that the dust has settled somewhat, it’s…

  By Ezra Friedlander Dec 30, 2012 | 5 min read