Opinion

• Opinion

  What Guns Mean

  President Obama’s forceful package of measures to curb gun violence and promote public safety is what this country needs. It also happens to be what this country wants — at least according to numerous polls that show a clear majority of Americans in favor of a ban on military-style assault weapons, limits on ammunition, universal…

  2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Sandy Is Still With Us

  On Friday, October 26, staff members left the Forward offices with the warning that a wicked storm was going to bear down on New York City that weekend. Better bring home notes in case you have to write your stories from someplace else on Monday, they were told. One day turned into eleven weeks. Only…

  Jan 16, 2013 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Israel Wins PETA Stamp of Approval

  Israel has the PETA stamp of approval. Animal rights advocates are kvelling over a new law that bans animal testing on all cosmetics or toiletries produced, imported to or sold in Israel. Kathy Guillermo, a top official at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, told The Forward that her organization is “just over the…

  By Renee Ghert-Zand Jan 16, 2013 | 2 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

• 
  Opinion

  Morsi’s Words and Deeds

  The insulting remarks about Jews made by Mohamed Morsi in 2010 have been replayed enough that they don’t need to be repeated here. Morsi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood then, and probably never thought he’d become president of Egypt in just a few years. That may explain his remarks. It doesn’t excuse them….

  By Jane Eisner Jan 15, 2013 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Donald Likes Bibi

  The Donald is backing Bibi. Trump, the flaxen-haired publicity hound last seen pushing birther conspiracy theories in the U.S. presidential race, made what he likely considered a major announcement this afternoon (then again, he thinks everything he says is a major announcement). He’s backing Benjamin Netanyahu in the January 22 Israeli elections. “Vote for Benjamin….

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Jan 15, 2013 | < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  French Jews Picked as Most Loved — and Hated — Figures

  The results are in from France’s annual flurry of end of the year polls to determine who is in and who is out, embraced or disgraced by the public. According to the newspaper Le Parisien, the nation’s most admired public figure is the singer and songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman. More or less at the same time,…

  By Robert Zaretsky Jan 15, 2013 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Everyone’s a Handwriting Expert — Even The Donald

  We know Jack Lew’s signature wouldn’t win any gold stars for penmanship. President Obama even joked that if he’d known Lew’s John Hancock was so loopy, he would have reconsidered his nomination for Treasury secretary. But self-proclaimed handwriting analyst Donald Trump says Lew’s signature isn’t just bad. Rather, it tells the real estate mogul-turned-wannabe Republican…

  By Susan Armitage Jan 14, 2013 | < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Marriage Isn’t One Size Fits All

  Let’s face it. Unless you send your child to a Jewish day school, Camp Ramah or Brandeis University, there is a high chance that he or she will become romantically involved with a non-Jew. While I appreciate Jane Eisner’s concerns in For 2013, A Marriage Agenda, she does not address some of the fundamental issues…

  By Dan Brotman Jan 14, 2013 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  No More Excuses

  Last year, when Pennsylvania State University finally acknowledged that it needed to thoroughly probe allegations that one of its top coaches had abused boys in his care, it turned to former FBI chief Louis Freeh to conduct the investigation. Eight months later, after he and his team interviewed 430 witnesses and examined 3.5 million emails…

  Jan 14, 2013 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Are We Jews by Choice or Blood?

  Back when he was Israel’s Minister of Justice, the irrepressible and ever-creative Yossi Beilin put forward a proposal for secular conversion to Judaism. As he explained, “It is simply unimaginable that in the 21st century, a time in which most of world Jewry is not religious, we should continue to grant certain religious establishments the…

  By Leonard Fein Jan 14, 2013 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Welcome Halkin and Horn

  With a new year come new names and fresh ideas to the pages of the Forward. I am pleased to announce the addition of two columnists who join the estimable list of writers contributing monthly to our opinion section. For me, there’s a personal joy in announcing these new colleagues. I’ll explain. I remember reading…

  By Jane Eisner Jan 14, 2013 | 2 min read