Opinion

• Opinion

  Have Some Empathy for the Entrepreneur

  Jewish professionals, including rabbis, are increasingly taking the food stamp challenge. For a week or even a month, these individuals spend no more than what the federal government gives the needy in food stamps — $5 a day — for all their nutritional needs. As exercises in empathy go, it’s impressive. I have known several…

  By Noam Neusner

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Backer of Settlements Gives to Rove’s Super PAC

  Irving Moskowitz, a major donor to Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, has given $1 million to the Karl Rove-linked Republican super PAC American Crossroads. The donation, made in mid-February, was the subject of a lengthy Huffington Post report published April 12. Moskowitz, 83, is best known for funding efforts to establish…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Apr 13, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Super PAC Ready To Schlep Again

  Armed with a $200,000 donation from a son of George Soros, the pro-Obama Jewish group that behind The Great Schlep is posed to play a major role this election cycle. The group, called the Jewish Council for Education and Research, ran a high-profile campaign to send young Jews to lobby their grandparents to vote for…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Apr 12, 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

  What’s Missing at Macy’s

  C’mon Macy’s. Honor your heritage. Demonstrate your respect for those who worked in your store a century ago. Show us the plaque. We refer to the bronze, bas-relief plaque, emblazoned with the profiles of Ida and Isidor Straus, who famously refused offers to escape the sinking Titanic 100 years ago and died together in the…

  Apr 12, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Times’ Matzo Story Forgot About Israel

  This Weekend’s New York Times Magazine brings an interesting story about the seemingly bulletproof business model behind American matzo manufacturing. The problem is that it omits a key ingredient in the global matzo marketplace: Israel. Every year for one week, about 2% of the U.S. population is forced to buy matzo, says writer Adam Davidson….

  By Paul Berger Apr 11, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  The Lessons of Jewish Pluralism

  The assertiveness of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox religious authorities over the country’s social life — and particularly over the role of women in the public square — has generated headlines and condemnation on the part of friends of Israel and, gleefully, from the country’s antagonists and enemies. These developments, and the potentially disastrous ever increasing growth in…

  By Daniel Jonah Goldhagen Apr 11, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Santorum’s Jewish Backers Switch to Romney

  With Rick Santroum’s exit from the presidential race, Jewish supporters of the conservative candidate say that they’re ready to back his onetime rival Mitt Romney. “We’re happy he stayed in as long as he did,” said David Shor, creator of the website Jews Pick Rick. “We’re going to unite behind Mitt Romney and hopefully we’ll…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Apr 10, 2012 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Jon Stewart’s Inspired Easter v. Passover Rant

  Jon Stewart delivered an inspired rant last night comparing the charms of Easter vs. Passover. The key line: “As a father of mixed-faith children who are exposed to both holidays, I can’t help but feel that we Jews are getting our asses kicked out here.” Some other key lines: Hey, five-year-olds: A basket filled with…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 10, 2012 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  The New Newspaper Barons

  David Carr’s insightful column about the resurgence of newspaper barons struck home for two reasons. The first, of course, was what prompted Carr to write it: the most recent sale of The Philadelphia Inquirer, my journalistic home for 25 years. When I return to Philadelphia, which I do now with less and less frequency, I’m…

  By Jane Eisner Apr 9, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Memo to American Jews: Learn Hebrew

  Somebody help me out here. Every time I visit Jewish communities in the United States, I get this weird feeling. It’s like I’m a character in somebody else’s movie. I go from one community to the next, asking all sorts of questions about what life is like for our people across the great American continent….

  By David Hazony Apr 9, 2012 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Americans Jews Are Different, Not ‘Partial’

  In a speech a couple of weeks ago, the dazzling A.B. Yehoshua, one of Israel’s most praised (and praiseworthy) authors, asserted that: “They [American Jews] and us are not the same thing. They should come here more often. All the love they have for Israel, [yet] they were here for barely a five-day visit; barely…

  By Leonard Fein Apr 8, 2012 | 3 min read