Opinion

• Opinion

  Barack Obama’s Israeli Boom Box

  President Obama listens to Israeli radio on an ’80s-style ghetto blaster. That’s the concept behind a new Israeli ad for a government-owned radio station, promoting its coverage of the upcoming elections in the Jewish state. The ad pictures the U.S. president on the lawn of the White House with a radio glued to his ear….

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis

  < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  For 2013, A Marriage Agenda

  Judging by the amount of money spent, and organizations created, and words expressed, you would think that the most serious problem facing the American Jewish community is the waning attachment to Israel among young adults. But that’s not what keeps me up at night. What haunts me and the many parents I know who have…

  By Jane Eisner Jan 7, 2013 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Make Food Aid Work for All

  This past fall, Congress allowed the U.S. Farm Bill — the legislation that governs the vast majority of our country’s food and agriculture policies, including international food aid — to expire. If our elected leaders refuse to move the process forward, funding for emergency food aid will run out in 2013. This doesn’t only jeopardize…

  By Timi Gerson Jan 7, 2013 | 2 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz Class assignment: Get to know your murdered Jewish neighbors

  

• Rob Eshman Liberal Zionists are under attack. A new book proves their work has never been more important

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s most dangerous war is with itself

  

• Emily Tamkin American Jews have a Hasan Piker problem. Solving it is going to hurt

  

• Jay Michaelson Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it. 

  

The Latest

• 
  Opinion

  Where’s the Platform, Bibi?

  With less than three weeks until elections in Israel, the nation’s leading party still has no platform. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hybrid political faction formed from the recent merger between the ruling Likud party and right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu, has yet to publish its platform, in which it lays out its stands on major issues. It’s…

  By Nathan Guttman Jan 6, 2013 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Pass Common Sense Gun Control Measures

  The president’s undisguised grief expressed that of the nation as we mourned the innocent lives lost in Newtown in yet another mass shooting. Maybe we aren’t so inured to gun violence after all, even though many of us no longer notice the news reports of children and others gunned down every day in our communities….

  By Sammie Moshenberg Jan 6, 2013 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Chuck Hagel’s Jewish Scorecard

  The debate over the possible nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel for defense secretary is not dying down. The White House has yet to formally announce whether Hagel will be its pick for the top Pentagon post, although President Obama has signalled to insiders that he is the likely choice. And the president did come…

  By Nathan Guttman Jan 5, 2013 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Stamp Out Slavery for Good

  Every day this week, the Forward is publishing pieces from opinion leaders in different fields about their prescription for policy in President Obama’s second term. One hundred and fifty years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery still exists in America. It takes place in just about every industry — agriculture, manufacturing, restaurants, domestic work and the…

  By Jill Jacobs Jan 5, 2013 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  U.S. Must Be Climate Change Leader

  Every day this week, the Forward is publishing pieces from opinion leaders in different fields about their prescription for policy in President Obama’s second term. A sense of urgency over climate change has gripped the world’s scientists, as once-in-a-century superstorms, droughts, floods and shortages of food and water have become commonplace. Lately the alarm has…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 5, 2013 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Brings Torture to Big Screen

  I recently sat in the dark of a movie theater and watched a human being being tortured. This happened at the beginning of Kathryn Bigelow’s new film “Zero Dark Thirty.” The film’s torture scenes begin the narrative arc toward the May 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden, and so “Zero Dark Thirty” has reopened the…

  By Rachel Kahn-Troster Jan 4, 2013 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Watching as Israel’s Election Approaches

  Having finally come to the end of a grueling election season in the United States, American Jews — certainly this one included — could be forgiven for wanting to take a long break from electoral politics. Yet those of us invested in the Israeli future, with friends and family living in cities recently targeted by…

  By Jay Michaelson Jan 4, 2013 | 5 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Requiem for the American Jewish Novel?

  I may be one of the few writers who was not surprised this past November to read about Philip Roth’s retirement, nor was I inspired to sit shiva for the American Jewish novel. When our media announced the news (a month after being scooped by the French magazine Les Inrocks), a spate of commentary appeared…

  By Sharon Pomerantz Jan 4, 2013 | 4 min read