Opinion

• Opinion

  Sympathy for the Undecided

  We are days away from the end of this election cycle, which also means it’s open season on that much ridiculed, mystifying yet rare species: the undecided voter. A mock commercial on “Saturday Night Live” captured the general disdain toward the folks we are repeatedly told will tip this election. In it, a series of…

  By Gal Beckerman

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Sandy: Climate Change You Can Believe In

  Climate change didn’t come up in any of the three debates, though Candy Crowley did mention it in passing, if only to note that it wasn’t going to be discussed. In fact, it’s hardly been mentioned in the entire campaign, even though, as I wrote last week, it is one of the most important issues…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 29, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Mitt’s Big Lead in Israel

  Luckily for President Barack Obama, Israel is no swing state. A sneak preview of a poll which will be released tomorrow indicates that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has won the hearts and minds of Israelis. Asked which hopeful they preferred, some 57% of Jewish Israelis said Romney, while just 22% said President Barack Obama….

  By Nathan Jeffay Oct 28, 2012 | < 1 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson Mamdani’s victory is an opportunity for Jews to relearn the art of disagreement

  

• Rob Eshman Pro-Palestinian protesters are suddenly supporting Iran. They might want to talk to some Palestinians

  

• Nora Berman Did Netanyahu coerce Trump into attacking Iran? No — but he tried with Obama

  

• Dan Perry For Trump and Netanyahu, statecraft is now synonymous with stagecraft

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

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  Opinion

  Kiwi Concern Over Anti-Semitic Vandalism

  Anywhere else, the desecration of 20 Jewish graves might have registered as a blip, another anti-Semitic act in an otherwise tranquil place with a miniscule Jewish population. But here in New Zealand, the incident has shaken up a nation that prides itself on openness —and sparked an intensive round of national soul-searching. The vandalism itself…

  By Michael Kaminer Oct 28, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Children of Russian Immigrants Move Left

  Lately I’ve caught my parents exchanging a certain look — some kind of amused smile, a mixture of surprise and disbelief. Whenever I let slip a reference to an anecdote about Odessan Jews or to a Soviet comedy film or to a Pushkin fairy tale — whatever they fed me throughout my childhood — they…

  By Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt Oct 28, 2012 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  A Blessing at the End

  ‘Doing Jewish” is a nice little catch phrase, but it doesn’t begin to cover the stunningly diverse ways in which America’s Jews in fact go about the doing of Jewish. The words call to people’s minds, say, the activities of the Anti-Defamation League or of their own local synagogue or Jewish community center, perhaps their…

  By Leonard Fein Oct 27, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Lena Dunham: First Time (Voting) Should Be Special

  Sarah Silverman isn’t the only funny Jewish lady making suggestive political videos for Obama. Now comes Lena Dunham, creator of the buzzy HBO show “Girls,” with a video about her first time…voting. “You want to do it with a great guy,” Dunham says. “You want to do it with a guy who brought the troops…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Oct 26, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Lingo of the Sarah Silverman Controversy

  The Jewish Press set off a firestorm last week when it published An Open Letter to Sarah Silverman by Rabbi Yaakov Rosenblatt. The Orthodox author criticized the comedian’s politics, vulgar presentation style, and the fact that she remains childless. As a linguist, what I found most interesting about this article was the language. By looking…

  By Sarah Bunin Benor Oct 26, 2012 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The 3 Unspoken Issues of 2012 Vote

  For all the presidential candidates’ talk of jobs, jobs and more jobs, voters face three other decisions that loom much larger. After all, poor economic policies can be changed in four years. The effects of these three decisions will stay with us for a long, long time — in one case for at least a…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 26, 2012 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  What Readers Think About the Election

  With so much attention on the Jewish vote in this presidential election, the Forward this week asked readers to register their thoughts in three successive polls. We don’t pretend that this web-based exercise is as valid as whatever Gallup or CNN does in the field, nor is our analysis up to Nate Silver’s standards. But…

  By Jane Eisner Oct 26, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Bibi-Liberman End Run vs. 2 States: The Odds

  Israel’s political map is about to upended when Netanyahu and Liberman go on television at 2 p.m. Eastern time to announce a joint Knesset run. They’re apparently not merging their parties but forming a joint list. The aim is to ensure that Bibi ends up with the largest Knesset bloc after the January 22 elections,…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 25, 2012 | 3 min read