Opinion

• Opinion

  First Thoughts on Tonight’s Debate

  The first presidential debate just ended and I’ve pressed the mute button on the remote control. Without listening to the yammering of the pundits, here are some of my immediate impressions. 1) Serious Energy Deficit: I’m not talking about economics here. I mean the basic level of emotion and personality and spunk expressed between the…

  By Gal Beckerman

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Chabad Gets Students Tipsy

  This post was originally published by New Voices at their blog, The Conspiracy. Stay on top of this story and other news about and by Jewish college students at New Voices, home of the news and views of campus Jews. If administrators at Northwestern University have their way, Chabad’s days of operating openly on the…

  By David A.M. Wilensky Oct 3, 2012 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Haaretz Tweets That Haaretz Is on Strike

  Scanning our Twitter feed this morning we saw this unusual tweet from Haaretz, announcing that the paper’s employees were going on strike (the Forward has an online partnership with the Israeli paper in which we swap content). #Haaretz and The Marker have launched a strike, paralyzing the newsroom. We will resume updating when the strike…

  By Gal Beckerman Oct 3, 2012 | < 1 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

  Prophets or Partisans?

  October 7 is Pulpit Freedom Sunday, when hundreds of pastors are expected to openly violate the law of the land and preach politics from the pulpit. The law they intend to violate is known as the Johnson Amendment. Enacted in 1954 and sponsored by then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, it limits the amount of political activity…

  Oct 3, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Q&A: Maria Chudnovsky on the MacArthur Award

  Maria Chudnovsky, an Israeli-American mathematician, was one of 23 recipients of the 2012 MacArthur Fellow awardees announced yesterday. The Columbia University professor, who teaches in the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department, was honored for her work in graph theory. Her research started at the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology and then continued at…

  By Seth Berkman Oct 2, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Adelson Funds Big Salaries

  Of the 19 Jewish nonprofits that pay their top executives over $400,000, the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Zionist Organization America are the only two that have total expenditures of less than $10 million a year. The RJC and the ZOA each spent around $3 million in 2010. That’s compared to the tens of millions…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Oct 2, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Nevada Jews Swing Like the State

  A Southern California rabbi, on learning that I was researching a book on Jews in Nevada, said: “Don’t waste your time. There were no Jews in Nevada until there was a Las Vegas.” It is true that the greater Las Vegas area is currently home to about 100,000 Jews, compared with 13,000 in the rest…

  By John Marschall Oct 1, 2012 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Sizing Up State of Jewish People

  There are titanic, 21st century global forces confronting the entire world, but which will have unique impacts on the Jewish people, both in Israel and the Diaspora. Jews, as they have for millennia, will find a way to adapt to them. But the Jewish people face an even greater challenge, one with a less certain…

  By Stuart E. Eizenstat Oct 1, 2012 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Can Ehud Olmert Rise From the Dead?

  As if handing down Israel’s most hotly awaited criminal sentence on the very eve of Yom Kippur weren’t symbolism enough for one day, the presiding judge in the corruption trial of former prime minister Ehud Olmert managed to drop a hint in her ruling that world history might be unfolding right there in her courtroom….

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 30, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Abbas vs. Netanyahu

  Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu once again avoided speaking to each other yesterday, as they have done for the past three years. Despite both claiming that they want to restart conflict-ending talks, there was little evidence of that in either leader’s speech to the United Nations’ General Assembly. Abbas was on the attack from the…

  By Jonathan Cummings Sep 28, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The RJC Wants to Give You An iPad 3

  Want a new iPad 3? Spend fifty hours phone banking for the Republican Jewish Coalition and the $599 model is yours. Only have forty hours? That’s okay — the RJC can still hook you up with the $499 version. RJC volunteers in California, Washington, New York and Florida who rack up phone banking hours between…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Sep 28, 2012 | < 1 min read