Opinion

• Opinion

  For Those Still Enslaved, Tomato Symbolizes Solidarity

  Last year I put a tomato on my Seder plate. I invite you this year to consider doing the same. The retelling of our liberation story at Passover is powerful, but we deepen the sense of the story through tasting it symbolically. We ingest the bitterness of slavery through the maror. The saltiness of the…

  By Joshua Lesser

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Ms. Quinn Runs for Mayor

  New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced she was running for mayor Sunday, making official what had been all but acknowledged for months. In a whistle-stop tour of the city and a new campaign video, Quinn touted her middle-class roots and a campaign agenda that emphasizes housing and education. If she wins, Quinn would…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Mar 10, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Abandoning Education, the Great Equalizer

  As we all know, America is the quintessential Land of Opportunity. It turns out, however, that what we know is wrong — very wrong. As Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz wrote in The New York Times in mid-February, the gap between the American promise and the American reality “could hardly be wider.” That is a sobering…

  By Leonard Fein Mar 9, 2013 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Trump is backed into a corner on Iran. Get ready for him to start blaming Jews

  

• Dan Perry The Iran war looks like a failure. Now comes the Trump-Netanyahu spin game

  

• Emily Tamkin We must rewrite the rulebook for fighting antisemitism — or conspiracists like Joe Kent will win the narrative wars

  

• Jay Michaelson Passover’s 4 cups of meaning

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Israel Update: Coalition Government Expected Soon

  Netanyahu is almost there. As Israeli politicians took a pause in their discussions for the Shabbat break, all sides expressed optimism that a new coalition could be announced within days. Netanyahu’s Likud-Beiteinu party is close to finalizing a deal with its two major coalition partners: Yesh Atid and HaBayit HaYehudi. According to press reports, in…

  By Nathan Guttman Mar 8, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  What David Brooks Didn’t Say About the Orthodox

  There’s a telling moment in David Brooks’ New York Times column today about the growth, and attraction, of Orthodox Jewry. He describes the educational background of Layaliza Soloveichik, the wife of Meir Soloveichik (Brooks’ “tour guide” around Haredi Brooklyn) in this way: Layaliza was admitted to Harvard but went to what Brooks describes as a…

  By Jane Eisner Mar 8, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Taking Another Look at FEMA Aid

  Since the Forward last weighed in on the contentious issue of whether federal money should go directly to houses of worship damaged by Hurricane Sandy, several things have happened. The House of Representatives handily passed an amendment that would classify synagogues, churches, etc., as private not-for-profit institutions eligible for aid from the Federal Emergency Management…

  Mar 8, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Locusts Go Biblical — But Are They Kosher?

  If it were a movie, Israel’s real-life nightmare would be a cross between “The Birds” and “The Ten Commandments.” Just in time for Passover, the Holy Land has been plagued by millions of locusts swarming in from across the Egyptian border. Hysterical news reports warned Israelis in the southern part of the country to stay…

  By Renee Ghert-Zand Mar 8, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Will Jonathan Pollard Be Home for Passover?

  It may sound farfetched to Americans. But some Israelis are hoping Barack Obama will free Jonathan Pollard as a goodwill gesture ahead of the president’s upcoming visit to the Middle East Activists and even members of Knesset are pressing for the release of the convicted Israeli spy and some have even suggested that Obama bring…

  By Nathan Guttman Mar 7, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Barack Obama Must Go to Rabin Square

  When President Obama’s itinerary for his upcoming Israel trip was leaked to the press, it appeared to be noticeably safe. It is true that Obama will make a number of important gestures during the visit, chief among them laying wreathes in the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, as well as on the graves of…

  By Liam Hoare Mar 7, 2013 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Ex-Mossad Chief: Time for a New Obama Peace Bid

  Just about everybody who follows Israeli affairs with any seriousness these days agrees that the peace process is dead, that the two sides are too far apart for any deal and besides there’s nobody to talk to. The one big exception is the Israeli intelligence and defense establishment, which remains a stronghold of optimism that…

  By J.J. Goldberg Mar 6, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Obama Won’t Go to Rabin Square

  One of Barack Obama’s hopes for his Israel visit is to address the Israeli public. Some commentators, such as Yoram Meital interviewed for a Forward article, have expressed the view that this lies at the crux of his trip, with him hoping to talk to Israelis about Iran over their Prime Minister’s head. But anybody…

  By Nathan Jeffay Mar 6, 2013 | 2 min read