Opinion

• Opinion

  American Jews Should Get Under the Tent

  In early June, more than 10,000 Israelis took to the streets on a Saturday night chanting “Bring back hope and justice,” in a resurgence of 2011’s protests against income inequality, shrinking social programs and the crisis of politicians driven more by self-preservation than by the needs of the country’s citizens. “We don’t want a government…

  By Aliza Becker

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Rocky Start to GOP Orthodox Outreach

  The nascent alliance between the ultra-Orthodox and the Republican Party that some analysts say could revolutionize New York state politics is getting off to a rocky start. UPDATE: Click through for Yossi Gestetner’s response. That’s the takeaway from the drama over Yossi Gestetner, the Hasidic political operative who abruptly resigned from his position directing Jewish…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Jun 21, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Lipa Schmeltzer’s Uncanny Valley

  I think I’ve figured out why I find Lipa Schmeltzer’s anti-Internet-rally-meets-Lady Gaga music video so engrossingly weird. And it’s not just the break-dancing Hasidic robots. Lipa’s video is weird for the same reason that Tom Hanks looks strange in Polar Express and that this android is really creepy. That reason: Schmeltzer’s “Hang Up The Phone”…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Jun 21, 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 I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• Dan Perry Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  The Undeserving Poor?

  Americans have long debated whether the poor are worthy of our help. Most people don’t put it that way, of course, because it seems cruel or, at very the least, inappropriate. But the question flows through the public discourse whenever proposals for reforming public welfare come before Congress, or an extension of housing benefits is…

  Jun 21, 2012 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Catholic League’s E-Feud With Rabbi Waskow

  The Catholic League has ideas about where one leftist rabbi’s nose should be. “[Y]ou have stuck your nose in where you don’t belong,” Catholic League president Bill Donohue told Rabbi Arthur Waskow in a private email exchange leaked to Buzzfeed. In particular, Donohue thinks Waskow should keep out of the controversies over a Vatican crackdown…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Jun 20, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  How Do You Say ‘Purple’ in Hebrew?

  You can’t say Alice Walker doesn’t put her money where her mouth is. The news that the Pulitzer-prize winning American novelist has refused to authorize a Hebrew-language translation of her landmark novel “The Color Purple” comes as little surprise. She has been involved for decades in pro-Palestinian activism. Initially drawn to the cause after the…

  By Blair Thornburgh Jun 20, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Peter David, Journalist and Middle East Thinker

  Peter David was probably the most important Middle East thinker about whom you’ve probably never heard. The Economist’s Washington bureau chief and author of the paper’s Lexington column, David died in a car crash on May 10 at the age of 60. During his long career at the magazine, he became its resident expert on…

  Jun 20, 2012 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Olympic Spirit Calls for Memorial

  Recently, I sat with my sons in our Tel Aviv apartment and watched a documentary about the massacre at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972. Five days before the end of the games, eight Palestinian terrorists from the group Black September broke into the Olympic Village, killing two Israelis and taking nine others hostage. The…

  By Jessica Apple Jun 20, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Forward 1, Hungary 0

  Elie Wiesel announced today his decision to renounce a Hungarian state award he received in 2004. Hungary has been “whitewashing” its fascist history during World War II, Wiesel said, including attempting to rebury the ashes of a writer, Jozsef Nyiro, a member of the notorious pro-Nazi Arrow Cross, in his native Transylvania. As Wiesel put…

  By Gal Beckerman Jun 19, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Too Much Israel in a Queens Race?

  How big a role should Israel play in a local election in Queens? Not very, New York City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley argued during a debate last night between the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination in New York’s Sixth Congressional District. The NY-6 race pits State Assemblyman Rory Lancman against State Assemblywoman Grace Meng and…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Jun 19, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Jews Failed to Spot Hitler’s Menace

  In the very early 1920s, when Adolf Hitler was still only a local rabble rouser in Munich, two men from Munich’s American consulate made a point of observing his rallies: Robert Murphy, the young acting consul, and Paul Drey, a German employee who was a member of a distinguished Bavarian Jewish family. “Do you think…

  By Andrew Nagorski Jun 19, 2012 | 4 min read