Opinion

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  Little Israel Buzz About Romney’s Trip

  I remember the day clearly. The buzz was everywhere. Israelis were certainly suspicious, but they were fixated by Barack Obama’s visit, ahead of his successful Presidential election. Four years on, with Republican presumptive nominee Mitt Romney about to visit Israel on Sunday, the situation could not be more different. Back in 2008, the daily newspaper…

  By Nathan Jeffay

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Jewish Angle in Chinese Dissident’s Struggle

  My documentary “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” about a Chinese artist who fights for freedom of expression and clashes with authorities because of it, had its first public screenings in January at the Sundance Film Festival. I was wide-eyed, dazzled and overwhelmed that week, my first film festival experience with my first film: audiences clapping, countless…

  By Alison Klayman Jul 26, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Mitt’s Trip to Israel

  President Obama’s critics like to acknowledge that official visits to foreign countries are more about style than substance, but when it comes to Israel, that’s a disingenuous feint. As Mitt Romney, presidential candidate, takes his campaign to Israel, conservative pundits see an opportunity to point out that Barack Obama hasn’t been there since moving into…

  Jul 26, 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 The challah that changed everything: Tracing Jewish baking back to Poland

  

• Nora Berman The world is outraged by a reporter’s death in Gaza. It’s part of a much bigger problem.

  

• Dan Perry Netanyahu’s new Gaza plan is a disaster. But it contains a tiny kernel of wisdom

  

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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Diva in the Headlights

  Mindy Meyer may be the Diva of the District, but the wannabe state senator from Brooklyn has a little homework to do if she hopes to make it big in politics. The 22-year-old Brooklyn law student looked a bit like a deer in the headlights when a local TV anchor asked her to identify some…

  By Simi Lampert Jul 25, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  In Praise of Day Schools

  As the mother of two grade-school boys in a Conservative day school, I read the Jewish Community Study of New York: 2011, a comprehensive survey of the world’s largest and most diverse Jewish community outside Israel, with great interest. It has clearly raised some significant issues and pointed out real challenges facing the Conservative movement….

  By Veronica Lurvey Jul 25, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  More Than Just a Farm

  A few months ago I sent an email to my editor, pitching a story on Yiddish Farm. (That piece is in this week’s paper, and online here.) I didn’t have to make a hard sell. An organic farm, run by 20-something-year-olds, where everyone speaks Yiddish? The piece practically writes itself. Indeed, Yiddish Farm is one…

  By Ezra Glinter Jul 24, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Nice To Meet You

  Those who are dedicated to maintaining Jerusalem as a pluralistic capital of all of Israel won a small but important victory in July: The Ministry of Transportation ordered Cnaan, the agency that handles advertising on Egged buses, to include images of women. The ruling was in response to a petition by Yerushalmim, a group that…

  Jul 24, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Diva of the District

  Mindy Meyer is a 22-year-old Orthodox law student who went to Prospect Park Yeshiva in Brooklyn, wears knee-length skirts — and is running for New York state Senate. Her website, pink and flashy, incorporates glitter and leopard print. Campaign slogan? “I’m Senator and I know it.” “I’m trying to appeal to the younger population,” explains…

  By Simi Lampert Jul 23, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Considering Evil in Age of Banality

  By the time we read Anna Breslaw’s assertion in a recent article in Tablet magazine that “there is no ‘banality’ of evil” we have already suffered paragraphs of banal prose about evil. The author — a grandchild of Holocaust survivors — led a recent story about a television program by declaring that Shoah survivors are…

  By David Paul Kuhn Jul 23, 2012 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘No Occupation’ Report Negates Israel’s Legitimacy

  Considerable attention has been focused these last several weeks on the report of Israel’s Levy Commission. No great surprise: The three-person commission, appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to render an advisory opinion regarding Jewish settlement in the West Bank, determined that there is no barrier to such settlement and, indeed, that the legality of…

  By Leonard Fein Jul 23, 2012 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Mind the (Gender) Gap

  Where are the women? It?s a question the Forward has asked repeatedly for several years now, as we?ve documented the paucity of women leaders in Jewish communal life and sought to ignite a community conversation about how to better include half the population. It seems that the issue is not ours alone ? the British…

  Jul 23, 2012 | 3 min read