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
Ghost of Israel’s Future
We know that Avigdor Lieberman is following events in Russia closely. After the December 4 parliamentary elections there were tainted by ballot stuffing and other violations roundly condemned by Western election monitors, Lieberman offered his own assessment of whether democracy had been harmed: “The outcome of the elections reflects the mood in Russia,” he said….
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Opinion Are Holocaust Images Too Hurtful?
The ongoing protests against the exclusion of women from the public sphere by some Haredim, and counter-protests by Haredi activists who say they are maligned by critics, have everyone in Israel talking. The subject was quite provocative enough. And then came the Holocaust reference to make it even more so. On New Year’s Eve night,…
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Opinion A Crazy World, From Pyongyang to D.C.
Our world has rarely seemed so impenetrably mysterious as it has these past days. The spectacle of hysterical weeping and wailing in North Korea follows hard on the heels of 10,000 protesters marching in downtown Cairo in outrage over photos of soldiers dragging women by the hair and stomped on them, stripping them half-naked in…
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Opinion Orthodox Divisions Over Extremism, Responsibility
Two very important articles in Haaretz this week that shed light on the violent extremism emerging from the two main streams of Israeli Orthodoxy. One, a feature article in today’s weekend section by senior correspondent Yair Ettinger, focuses on the growing furor over Haredi extremism, assaults on women’s rights and the violence in the Haredi…
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Opinion Monitoring the Monitors
The Syrian uprising, now in its ninth month, has recently experienced some of the most ruthless and deadly violence on the part of Bashar al-Assad’s government. The stronghold city of Homs, a center of the revolt, is a war zone. Images from the city show bodies lying on the sidewalks and tanks rolling down the…
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Opinion Recognition of Suffering, Far Too Late
Israel is definitely making progress on the subject of the Armenian genocide. In late December, during the Knesset’s first ever open-door debate on the issue, nobody was reported to have questioned whether the deliberate killing of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915-’16 should be called a genocide, nor whether the Ottoman Empire was the guilty party,…
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Opinion When History Is Closed for Debate
The spirit of the holiday season has just swept across the French National Assembly. On December 22, the nation’s representatives — or, more accurately, the handful in attendance — passed a bill that would criminalize the denial of the Turkish massacre of the Armenians in 1915. It was as much a gift to the government…
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Opinion Yes, Virginia, Hanukkah Has a Correct Spelling
“Jewish Tech” blogger Rabbi Jason Miller asks a useful and important question in his Jewish Week column this week, namely: How do you spell Hanukkah? Unfortunately, he starts off with an incorrect premise, then looks for an answer in the wrong place and leads his readers on a bit of a goose chase. He ends…
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Opinion Poor Bibi: New Spy Chief Downplays Iran Threat
Yet another embarrassment to Israel’s prime minister in his effort to drum up support for a military attack on Iran: Haaretz reports that the newly appointed director of the Mossad intelligence agency, Tamir Pardo, downplayed the severity of the Iranian nuclear project, telling a closed gathering of senior Israeli diplomats that an Iranian nuclear weapon…
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Opinion Day Schools Stuck in Neutral
The month of December brought some bad news for Jewish day school advocates. According to the Avi Chai Foundation, which tracks these things, day school enrollment saw a “modest decline” of about 1.4% in the 2011-12 school year, compared with the year before. The sharpest decline was reported among the Solomon Schechter schools of Conservative…
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Opinion Scoops: Ron Paul, Zionist; Scarlett’s Jewish Literacy
Haaretz’s Chemi Shalev scores an interview (via email) with Ron Paul, who seems to think he’s the only true Zionist in the race. How’s that? Well, Paul says, Two of the tenets of a true Zionist are “self-determination” and “self-reliance.” I do not believe we should be Israel’s master but, rather, her friend. We should…
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