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
Pro-Gun Backlash to Newtown Could Help Elect Republicans
Two devastating tragedies struck the American northeast last fall with a deadly force that riveted the nation’s collective imagination, battered our conscience and rewrote our national agenda. One was the massive destruction of Superstorm Sandy. The other was the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Sandy and Sandy Hook. They came at a pivotal…
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Opinion Why Can’t Jewish Settlements Remain in a Palestinian State?
“There’s no greater cliché,” I wrote in this column a month ago, “than the one that keeps insisting that the settlements are an obstacle to peace. They may have been that once, when they were few and sparsely populated enough to be removed. Now that they’ve long passed that point, any peace agreement will have…
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Opinion SOTU: Big Government, Small Footprint
Five thoughts on President Obama’s State of the Union address: • Obama called for “smarter government” but, as many noted, he also called for a bigger government – or, more precisely, a federal government with bigger ambitions to educate, protect and defend. (More on this in a moment.) But that expansive vision did not translate…
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Opinion I Am Jewish
God has burdened human beings with the task of being the carriers of God’s vision for human history. The law and the commandments express not only God’s legislative authority but also, and above all, God’s need for human beings.” Despite the varieties of lifestyles and outlooks among Jews today, there are certain organizing principles that…
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Opinion Jewiest Dog in Show
I have spent my entire life avoiding dogs. They make me sneeze, wheeze and itch, and please, don’t start with the hypoallergenic dog argument; I’m indiscriminately allergic to all of them. Also, when I was five years old, the dog next door — a gigantic, snarling, barking, brown fuzzy beast — chased me halfway around…
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Opinion 4 Jewish Things in the SOTU
It will be President Obama’s first State of the Union address in his second term and White House leakers are already promising an aggressive speech, designed to push Republicans ahead of the upcoming battle over budget sequestration cuts. It will also be a chance for Obama to outline a vision for his second term and…
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Opinion Losing a Dad, Gaining a Voice
When I found myself having a long and enjoyable phone conversation with one of my daughter’s peers and former classmates, it was with a sense of genuine surprise and delight. But it was bittersweet as well. I was speaking with Sami Rahamim of St Louis Park, Minn., who was in my daughter’s class at Heilicher…
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Opinion Pope Benedict Leaves Behind Mixed Record of Relations With Jews
With his resignation announced this week, Pope Benedict XVI opened the door both to reflection on his contributions to Catholic-Jewish relations and to concerns about where his unknown successor will lead the church. Benedict brought to his position a formidable intellect — one, however, most inclined to focus on complex theological ideas. This has shaped…
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Opinion How Not To Close Digital Divide
A powerfully reported story published in last week’s edition of the Forward by our Josh Nathan-Kazis detailed how ultra-Orthodox groups in New York City were exploiting a federal program meant to help poor schools and libraries. The article has prompted two glaring questions. Why is a program that dispenses $2.5 billion a year of our…
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Opinion Two Ways To Die
The stories of Ariel Sharon and Happy Fernandez are a study in contrasts. Sharon, as we all know, is being kept alive in an Israeli hospital seven years after suffering a massive stroke. He was prime minister at the time, had just dramatically pulled Israel out of Gaza and founded a new centrist political party,…
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Opinion Institution of Chief Rabbi Has Outlived Its Usefulness
Finally, after more than a year of deliberation, the United Kingdom has chosen Ephraim Mirvis to be its new chief rabbi, replacing Lord Jonathan Sacks. Actually, much of that sentence isn’t correct. It isn’t “the United Kingdom” that chooses the chief rabbi. For all its pretensions to established status, the chief rabbinate has only a…
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Opinion The Iran war looks like a failure. Now comes the Trump-Netanyahu spin game
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