Opinion

• Opinion

  Yes, Virginia, Hanukkah Has a Correct Spelling

  “Jewish Tech” blogger Rabbi Jason Miller asks a useful and important question in his Jewish Week column this week, namely: How do you spell Hanukkah? Unfortunately, he starts off with an incorrect premise, then looks for an answer in the wrong place and leads his readers on a bit of a goose chase. He ends…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Poor Bibi: New Spy Chief Downplays Iran Threat

  Yet another embarrassment to Israel’s prime minister in his effort to drum up support for a military attack on Iran: Haaretz reports that the newly appointed director of the Mossad intelligence agency, Tamir Pardo, downplayed the severity of the Iranian nuclear project, telling a closed gathering of senior Israeli diplomats that an Iranian nuclear weapon…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 29, 2011 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Day Schools Stuck in Neutral

  The month of December brought some bad news for Jewish day school advocates. According to the Avi Chai Foundation, which tracks these things, day school enrollment saw a “modest decline” of about 1.4% in the 2011-12 school year, compared with the year before. The sharpest decline was reported among the Solomon Schechter schools of Conservative…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 29, 2011 | 4 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

• Opinion

  Scoops: Ron Paul, Zionist; Scarlett’s Jewish Literacy

  Haaretz’s Chemi Shalev scores an interview (via email) with Ron Paul, who seems to think he’s the only true Zionist in the race. How’s that? Well, Paul says, Two of the tenets of a true Zionist are “self-determination” and “self-reliance.” I do not believe we should be Israel’s master but, rather, her friend. We should…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 29, 2011 | < 1 min read
• Letters

  Chrismukkah Redux

  By providing Jordana Horn space to defend her controversial Kveller article about why Jews shouldn’t celebrate Christmas (“I Am the Grinch Who Stole Chrismukkah,” December 30), you’ve enabled her to repeat its offenses. In the original piece she wrote that interfaith families who celebrate both holidays “without thinking about it…should probably just celebrate Christmas and…

  Dec 28, 2011 | < 1 min read
• Letters

  Querying Kushner

  In the Forward’s December 9 profile of Tony Kushner, he presents an alternative reality in expounding upon the “disgusting” circumstance of persons using “money to leverage power over non-profit institutions.” He is referring to my role as trustee at the City University of New York and to the attempt I made to prevent him from…

  Dec 28, 2011 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Time To Reach Out to Hamas

  It is easy to despair of diplomacy. The Mideast peace process is moribund, homegrown grassroots forces sweep the region and topple familiar old allies, America retreats from Iraq leaving the fires it ignited still aflame, and even the region’s weakest and most indulged leaders, Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu, turn their backs on compromise, defying…

  By Nicolas Pelham Dec 28, 2011 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Conflating Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism

  A brief addendum to Gal’s earlier post on Ron Paul. The New York Times published a thorough piece this weekend examining Paul’s much-discussed relationship with the racist fringe of the libertarian spectrum. The story, which reported that Paul doesn’t agree with his most extreme followers but that he won’t reject their support, is well worth…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Dec 27, 2011 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Ron Paul: Not a Friend of Israel (or Jews?)

  For those keeping up with the Republican primary and the incredible dunk tank quality it’s taken on, you know that it is Ron Paul’s turn to get wet (if he isn’t already soaked). On the question of his alleged anti-Semitism and anti-Semitism and anti- lots of other things we were provided some damning insight the…

  By Gal Beckerman Dec 27, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Oh Thank Heaven for 2011

  What a year it was, this two-oh-one-one, Uprisings, protests, regimes on the run. A year when “occupy” became a noun, And millions tried to imitate Kate’s gown. Bin Laden is gone, we’re out of Iraq. Here at the Forward, it’s time to look back. It was a year of Jacobs — Jill, Leslie, And Rick,…

  Dec 27, 2011 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Probing the Psychology of Climate Denial

  America’s weird and weirdly mounting resistance to the science of climate change is a topic of growing alarm around the world. What’s behind it? No clear answers yet, but some interesting new bits of insight are surfacing. First up, a sharply worded cri de Coeur by Chesapeake Bay-area environmental activist Mike Tidwell that appeared on…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 26, 2011 | 5 min read