Opinion

• Opinion

  Obama Is Israel’s Captain America

  Apparently, all it took was a speech. After Barack Obama’s address to the United Nations last week, in which he spent approximately two minutes telling the Israeli narrative in a way that satisfied certain Jewish ears (and, of course, opposing Palestinian statehood), he is suddenly in the good graces of the Israeli population for really…

  By Gal Beckerman

  < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘Russian Dolls’ Is Worse Than Tacky Fun

  Watching television is not high on my list of things to do these days. As a second-year law student, there really isn’t much leisure time. But I couldn’t resist tuning in recently to watch “Russian Dolls,” a Lifetime network show that has been billed as the “Russian Jersey Shore,” in which the cameras of reality…

  By Inna Vernikov Sep 28, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel Hands Ancient Site to Ideologues

  Imagine stepping off the ferry to find that the Statue of Liberty monument is not run by the U.S. National Park Service, but that an evangelical Christian group has a special concession to operate this historic site. Also imagine that the film shown at the Ellis Island museum no longer emphasizes America’s multi-cultural history of…

  By Sarah Kreimer Sep 26, 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 Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  This is a Sanctuary?

  In just four days, at the end of this month, special benefits will run out for up to 4,600 refugees and assylees who fled persecution and affliction and were invited to live in America. These people are extremely poor, often disabled or very old, and because of that, they are unable to go through the…

  By Jane Eisner Sep 26, 2011 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  From Right and Left, Forecasts of Israeli Doom

  You know what they say: One is an anomaly, two is a coincidence, three is a trend. What about four? That’s how many leading commentators have weighed in over the past week with astonishingly gloomy prognoses about Israel’s future. They come from both left and right. The consensus is that the Jewish state is on…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 25, 2011 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Do Israelis Even Care About Statehood Bid?

  What do Israelis feel about the Palestinian statehood bid? Judging by the talk of their leaders in New York, and Diaspora Jewish organizations that claim to be representing their interests, you may think they’re ready to fight it tooth and nail. But a surprisingly high seven out of ten think that if the US veto…

  By Nathan Jeffay Sep 23, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Jewish Publication Society Sale Brings End to Era

  The University Press of Nebraska’s purchase in September of the unsold inventory and publication rights to all of the Jewish Publication Society’s books effectively rings down the curtain on the oldest and most prestigious active Jewish publisher in the United States. It also marks the latest in a string of institutional “intermarriages” between Jewish and…

  By Jonathan Sarna Sep 23, 2011 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Autism That Plagues Political Discourse

  Every year, it seems, the approach of the solemn Season of Repentance finds us more sorrowful, and yet, oddly, less and less repentant. It’s sort of like a jobless recovery, but without the recovery. I’m not talking about our inability to repent as fully as we should. That’s nothing new. It’s always been hard to…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 22, 2011 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  More Than Ever, Time To Remember Rabin

  This year, for the first time since the first anniversary of that terrible night, there will be no rally in Tel Aviv to commemorate the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Dalia Rabin, the slain prime minister’s daughter and chair of the Rabin Center, announced the decision. Her explanation? Public interest is waning, and the costs of…

  By Leonard Fein Sep 22, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Politicizing Israel

  As of this writing, there is no outcome to the maneuverings at the United Nations over whether the Palestinian Authority will request a vote on statehood and, if so, how that vote will proceed. But there is already one outcome of this troubled period in America’s relationship with Israel that we fear could prove dangerous…

  Sep 22, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  New Labor Head: Fiery Populist, Wary Diplomat

  The Israel Labor Party chose a new leader in a primary runoff on Tuesday. The winner, Shelly Yacimovich, is a former television news anchor whom polls show to have the most realistic chance of leading the battered party back to major-party status after a decade of what has seemed like terminal decline. Yacimovich (ya-khee-MO-vitch) is…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 22, 2011 | 3 min read