Opinion

• 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

  < 1 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

  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

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 There’s a shocking new report on civilian deaths in Gaza. If only it were accurate.

  

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

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s new gift to the far right could help end the Gaza war

  

• Emily Tamkin Entering motherhood — and an obsession with the works of an Italian Jewish literary hero

  

The Latest

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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
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  Opinion

  Anti-African Crackdown Ruled Illegal

  Fear spread across Israel’s illegal immigrants from Sudan last summer. As the Forward reported, it has seemed in recent days like the Interior Ministry’s deadline was looming and they would soon be imprisoned. In August he announced plans to jail all Sudanese illegals without trial starting on October 15 and was expected to get underway…

  By Nathan Jeffay Oct 25, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Inequality Hurts Us All

  Biblical Judaism knew what to do about income inequality: observe the sh’mitah, the sabbatical year. Every seven years, according to the laws of Leviticus, debts are to be forgiven and all agricultural activities — plowing, planting, pruning and harvesting — are to be suspended. The gap between rich and poor, those who have and those…

  Oct 25, 2012 | 4 min read