Opinion

• 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

  2 min read
• 
  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
• 
  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

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Trump is backed into a corner on Iran. Get ready for him to start blaming Jews

  

• Dan Perry Viktor Orbán may fall. Netanyahu should be next

  

• Emily Tamkin Hungary is poised to topple an authoritarian leader. American Jews have something to learn

  

• Jay Michaelson Passover’s 4 cups of meaning

  

The Latest

• 
  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
• 
  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
• 
  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
• 
  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
• 
  Opinion

  Chinese Divided Over Middle East

  In recent years, China’s foreign policy has turned more assertive than it has been in decades. When it comes to the Middle East, it has expressed this aggressiveness mostly through the veto power it wields in the United Nations Security Council, protecting Iran, for example, from tough sanctions over its nuclear program. With regard to…

  By Robert O. Freedman Apr 6, 2012 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Beinart’s Other Proposal

  At the end of his new book, “The Crisis of Zionism,” Peter Beinart offers two controversial proposals to mend the relationship between Israel and American Jews, or at least liberal American Jews. His call for a targeted consumer boycott of Israeli settlements has unleashed a torrent of anxious response, some of it insightful, most of…

  Apr 6, 2012 | 2 min read