Opinion

• Opinion

  The Sniper Who Killed Me: Syrian Photog Films Own Murder

  A Syrian civilian in the city of Homs ran onto his roof with a video camera to film the shooting outside his house. Eventually he focuses on a uniformed gunman in a nearby building who takes aim at him and shoots. A few moments of silence, and then voices of grief approaching. Haaretz has the…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  < 1 min read
• Opinion

  ‘Zombie Liberalism’: Standing Up for Minorities, Losing Sight of the Majority?

  The Washington Post has a useful news analysis that looks at the New York State gay marriage decision and what it says about the state of liberalism. The headline says it all: “The rise of zombie liberalism: Half-dead, half-alive. “ The basic premise isn’t terribly new, but it’s too often forgotten: the liberalism of “Expanding…

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

  A Country In Need of Social Justice

  Why does it matter that the Jewish people persists, beyond the sometime comforts of ethnic identity? What grand purpose is served by the continuing existence of the Jews? Obviously, there are a variety of plausible responses to those questions. Having a compelling way to fill in the blank in the sentence that begins, “It is…

  By Leonard Fein Jul 1, 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 Americans keep getting killed in the West Bank. Here’s how the US could fight that awful trend

  

• Nora Berman First Camp Auschwitz, now Alligator Alcatraz — why the right is obsessed with commodifying brutality

  

• Dan Perry What exactly is going on between Israel and Syria — and is the prospect of peace dead?

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Dinner With Livni

  The Tzipi Livni who spoke before a small, private dinner on Wednesday evening in New York seemed more excitable, passionate and downright worried than she has been in these sort of settings. Barely had the guests invited by the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace taken their seats when the leader of Israel’s…

  By Jane Eisner Jun 30, 2011 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  WJC’s Leader Veers to the Right and Beyond

  Consider this thought. It just might represent your future: “In political warfare, words are lethal weapons.” So lethal, in fact, that when you look at today’s dangers, “It would behoove Israeli and Jewish leaders to avoid being the inadvertent ‘weapons suppliers’ of the country’s adversaries.” Translation: Watch what you say. You might be aiding the…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jun 29, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Independence Day for an American Rabbi

  In 1914, Mary Antin, an American Jewish writer and immigration activist, described the founding of the United States in biblical terms: I have chosen to read the story of ’76 as a chapter in sacred history…. Once the thunders of God were heard on Mount Sinai, and a certain people heard, and the blackness of…

  By Jill Jacobs Jun 29, 2011 | 3 min read
• Letters

  Caring About Jewish Education

  The Forward’s June 14 opinion piece “Hebrew Language Charter Schools Are a Bad Bargain” fails to mention that Jewish federations maintain an unwavering commitment to hundreds of educational programs across North America, dedicating millions of dollars toward the future of our children. In fact, despite continued economic challenges, many federations are expanding their support of…

  Jun 29, 2011 | 2 min read
• Letters

  Bialystock, Through a Different Lens

  I write to respond to Allan Nadler’s discussion of my recent book, “Jewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora.” In his May 20 review, “Cities of Jewish Success, Crushed,” Nadler appears to have fallen into a classic trap: He measures my book not against its own ambitions but against the book he wishes I had written. As…

  Jun 29, 2011 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Keeping It Kosher

  Is a hotel no longer to be considered kosher because of the way it treats its housekeepers? Is a restaurant or a factory treyf because of how it treats its workers? Jews in America have long been concerned with the rights of workers and the conditions of employment, but those concerns have largely been framed…

  Jun 29, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  How To Remember Gettysburg

  The sesquicentennial of the Battle of Gettysburg is still two years away, but the drumbeat is already sounding. On our visit just days before the 148th anniversary, the parking lot outside the new visitors center was throbbing with cars and buses, as if the commemoration had already begun. But what are we remembering? The bloodiest,…

  By Jane Eisner Jun 29, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Anti-Semitism and the American College Campus

  The recent controversy over the axing of Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Initiative for Studying Antisemitism (to be replaced by a new faculty-based research program) has generated much heat, but little light. Some of the commentary has been venomous, unnecessarily personalized, and self-serving, while invoking unproven allegations of political bias. The highly polemical tone of the debate…

  By Robert Wistrich Jun 29, 2011 | 3 min read