Opinion

• Letters

  What I Need To Know

  I am the mother of a young musician in his first year of service in the Israel Defense Forces. This is what I need to know: that if he were in Gilad Shalit’s position, my people would never, ever leave him behind in order to avoid the terrible calculus of securing his life in an…

  < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Why Deal To Free Gilad Shalit Was Smart

  You didn’t have to be a great lover of Israel to get choked up at the sight of Gilad Shalit walking unsteadily into the sunlight of freedom October 18, after five years of being locked in a hole somewhere in Gaza. At the same time, you couldn’t miss the anguished second-guessing that dominated public discussion…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 20, 2011 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Jewish Students Deserve Legal Protection

  Soon, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which says that it serves as “the representative voice of the organized American Jewish community,” will be voting on a draft resolution on countering campus anti-Israel activity. The draft resolution follows from a policy issued last year by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR),…

  By Susan B. Tuchman Oct 20, 2011 | 3 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 A new humanitarian outrage is unfolding in the Middle East. It’s not in Gaza

  

• Nora Berman The left is turning on AOC over Israel — and imperiling its own agenda

  

• Dan Perry Actually, Trump made things between Israel and Iran way worse

  

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

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  By Our Numbers, Pressing To Reform America

  Where shall we start? How about the fact that more than half the unemployed people in the United States have been out of work for more than 40 weeks? Or would you rather wrestle with the fact that we now have more than 46 million Americans living in poverty, half of them in abject poverty?…

  By Leonard Fein Oct 20, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  This ‘Occupy’ Anti-Semite Is No New Face

  Occupy Wall Street’s most visible anti-Semite was picketing the Financial District long before Zuccotti Park was occupied. Carrying a variety of hand-lettered signs with anti-Semitic messages, images of the man — who has been vehemently disowned by the mainstream of the protest movement — have been instrumental to the case that Occupy Wall Street is…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Oct 19, 2011 | 2 min read
• Letters

  Israel Shouldn’t Free Killers

  Did Israel ask the relatives of those hundreds of Israelis who were murdered by terrorists about their feelings and opinions pertaining to the release of their relatives’ murderers (“Free at Last, Shalit Returns to Israel,” October 18)? Hypothetically, suppose there were secret recordings of some of those to be released declaring that as soon as…

  Oct 19, 2011 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Israelis Back Shalit Release Deal 6-1

  After seeing, hearing and reading the flood of anguish and outrage that’s followed Israel’s decision to free 1,027 terrorists in return for one captured soldier, you might be astonished to learn that Israelis approve of the deal by a nearly 6-to-1 margin, according to a poll published in the Jerusalem Post October 18. The Dahaf…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 19, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Israel Should Listen to American Jews, Too

  As tempers flare anew in the never-ending debate over American Jews’ loyalty to Israel, I’m happy to report that an important new voice has weighed in, offering a genuinely fresh approach to the question. And not just any voice. I’m talking about one of Israel’s leading authorities on loyalty, Knesset member Avi Dichter, former head…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 14, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Occupy-ing Sukkahs, Across the Nation

  Less than a week after a Yom Kippur service drew hundreds to the anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street protest in downtown Manhattan, Jewish activists are building sukkahs at Occupy protests in nine American cities. Activists say that the sukkahs, temporary dwellings in which Jews are commanded to live during the holiday of Sukkot, will bring a…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Oct 13, 2011 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Protests Are Spreading Across an Angry Globe

  It took all of nine weeks for Israel’s summer protests to cross the oceans to America. What began on Rothschild Boulevard (or, truth be told, in Tahrir Square, in Cairo) on July 14 and moved from there to dozens of cities and towns in Israel came to New York City’s Wall Street on September 17…

  By Leonard Fein Oct 13, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why ‘Occupy Judaism’ Is Turning Point

  Charles Finney was America’s best-known preacher in the 1830s when he invented the altar call. At the end of a revival meeting, he’d invite worshippers stirred by the gospel to come before an altar placed in front of the hall and publicly swear their commitment to Jesus Christ. Finney did this to showcase — critics…

  By Jane Eisner Oct 13, 2011 | 4 min read