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
Wiesenthal Center Posts Anti-Semitic Cartoons
The Simon Wiesenthal Center yesterday trumpeted its success in forcing YouTube to remove a heinously anti-semitic Iranian animated cartoon. Putting the principles of free speech aside for a second, it’s difficult to see what possible good YouTube could be doing by hosting such hateful propaganda. As the Wiesenthal Center notes, the campaign of which the…
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Opinion Bagels and Iran
Democrats walk a fine line these days when they reach out to the organized, activist wing of the Jewish community. One side beckons with an ardent, almost scolding reminder of the Jewish mandate to care for the needy. On the other side, an urgent, almost pleading defense of the Democrats’ record on Israel. The danger:…
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Opinion The Adelson Factor
Any discussion of Sheldon Adelson’s dominant role in both American and Israeli politics must begin with a fundamental ackowledgement: Everything about it is legal and transparent. But that is what makes it even more troubling. In just the past month, Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have garnered headlines in the United States by donating a…
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Letters Successes, Too
As the Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel in Northampton, Mass., I was certainly proud of the Lander Grinspoon Academy, our local K-6 day school, cited in a recent article as an exception to the trend of other Schechter-affiliated schools shrinking or closing (“What Does Schechter Decline Mean?” January 27). However, I also believe it is…
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Letters A Clear Problem
It’s disgraceful that Jewish college presidents are ambivalent about publicly condemning and combating campus anti-Semitism, or even acknowledging that this problem exists (“College Leaders Balance Israel and Speech,” January 20). Your article notes that some Jewish college presidents are “skeptical” about the Department of Education’s new policy to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights…
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Letters Changing Poland
As a child of Jewish Holocaust survivors from Poland and the Ukraine, as well as an American Fulbright who lived in Poland for a year, I am encouraged by the Palikot movement and the radical changes evidenced in Polish politics, described in the December 9 article, “Not Your Grandma’s Poland Anymore.” With Palikot garnering 10%…
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Opinion The Times Enters the Shtetlsphere
It is not uncommon for us here in the small world of Jewish journalism (or, as Marc Tracy over at Tablet so aptly dubbed it, the “shtetlsphere”) to marvel when The New York Times runs a story that would seem even too narrowly Jewish (or Israeli) for us. It happens, strangely, all the time. We…
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Opinion What Sheldon’s Money Buys
It is safe to say that without multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s help the chances of Newt Gingrich becoming the Republican nominee for president would be zero — and consequently the race itself, going into Florida at the moment, would not be the competitive, drag-out fight it has become. Adelson, the hotel and casino magnate, has kept…
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Opinion State of Fairness
A Republican commentator complained of the State of the Union speech just after its emotive conclusion that all Barack Obama wants to do is redistribute wealth, spend more of other people’s money, and take from those who have and give it to those who don’t. Actually, what the president did in this overly detailed but…
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Opinion Brotherhood Prepares for Power in Egypt
It used to be easy to meet those leaders of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood who were not behind bars. They could be found in a dusty office on a Cairo side street; they had time for all visitors. Today, however, the movement has an imposing new headquarters in a suburb overlooking the city. One has to…
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Opinion Gingrich’s Anti-Semitic Dog Whistle: Saul Alinsky
When Newt Gingrich is called out for using the phrase “food stamp president,” he fiercely defends the idea that he is simply pointing out the obvious: that under Obama more people signed up for food stamps. Simple as that. He is not gently plucking racist tropes for the benefit of his base, but just telling…
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