In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
Free Speech for Reporters, Too
The first national conference of the BDS movement, going on now at the University of Pennsylvania, has certainly riled up people on all sides of this controversial topic, as our Naomi Zeveloff reports here. Let’s put aside for a moment whether this movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel is about undoing the Israeli…
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Opinion Poverty in America: A Crisis Ignored
Poor Jews, the saying goes, are middle-class Jews without money. The unstated assumption is that the conventional cultural standards of the middle class are not displaced by a “culture of poverty” when Jews tumble down the class ladder. It is, however, important to remember that some Jews — estimates vary, but a reasonable guess is…
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Opinion Train More Capable Leaders
Executive salaries in the Jewish community — as elsewhere in both the nonprofit and corporate worlds — often correspond very little with the size, complexity or profit of their organizations. Ultimately, it is the board that determines the executive director’s salary. And though the organization’s size and financial soundness must be taken into account, it…
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Opinion Hire and Pay Fairly and Equally
The problem of income disparity in the world of Jewish organizations comes down to the question of value. There is nothing wrong with CEOs being well paid if they are doing extraordinary work on behalf of their mission and constituencies. But what are these salaries actually based on? In the world of high finance, CEOs…
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Opinion The Days After
The new year begins with a blizzard of stories, reports, analyses and exhortations about the threat of a nuclear Iran and the means — if they exist — to stop it. For now, we will leave it to the experts to argue over whether a military strike can be effective, prosecuted by Israel alone or…
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Opinion Create Tax for Jewish Education
Although the salary gap in the Jewish communal world is not as disparate as that between other workers and corporate CEOs or money managers, it remains substantial. Some of our teachers and social service workers — on the front lines of Jewish continuity and caring — receive poverty-level wages, while some executives receive salaries in…
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Opinion Follow the Ethical Guidlines
Corporate boards, whether in the for-profit or nonprofit sector, are accountable to the communities for which and in which they operate. Boards serve numerous functions, including setting the overall mission of the organization; hiring, compensating and evaluating the performance of CEOs; ensuring adequate financial resources and oversight; recruiting new board members to replace retiring board…
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Opinion Alleged Child Molesting Pastor Wrapped in Torah Scrolls
Apparently oblivious to how offensive this would be to any non-messianic Jew, Atlanta pastor Eddie Long — who privately settled lawsuits with several men who had alleged he molested them as boys, and whose wife recently divorced him for the same reason — allowed himself to be wrapped in a Torah scroll by messianic ‘Jew’…
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Opinion Conservative Florida Jew Switches to House Bid
It looks like Adam Hasner won’t end the drought of Republican Jews in the U.S. Senate. The onetime Florida Republican hopeful, whose troubled Senate campaign the Forward profiled last week, has dropped out of the race against U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV, son of the former Senator Connie Mack III. But Hasner hasn’t given up…
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Opinion The Revenge of Saul Alinsky
I have to share Dana Milbank’s sentiment in his open love letter to Newt Gingrich this week. It would be a real shame to lose Newt (and he thinks the liberal east coast media elite hates him! Au contraire!). Mostly I would be saddened by the thought that the ghost of Saul Alinsky would then…
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Opinion Race for the Door
Why Planned Parenthood has become Public Enemy No. 1 for a vocal segment of conservative America remains a mystery to us. All of its services are legal and medically necessary, filling an essential void left by our piecemeal, inequitable health care system, which is why the federal government provides the agency with $363 million annually….
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