Opinion

• Letters

  Jews and Tea

  As a survey specialist who has been involved in several dozen political and demographic studies of American Jews, I read with great interest Nathan Guttman’s June 14 article, “Are Jews Warming to the Tea Party?” The piece uses the results of a recent poll to suggest that Jews might be increasingly drawn to that mouthpiece…

  < 1 min read
• Letters

  The Origins of Cream Cheese

  Leah Koenig (and Gil Marks whom she used as her source) have, through no fault of their own, contributed to perpetuating the myth of cream cheese’s origin and development in America. (“Deconstructing Cheesecake,” June 10th). My forthcoming article in the journal, Food, Culture and Society, puts to rest these myths. Cream cheese was not “accidentally…

  Jun 22, 2011 | < 1 min read
• Letters

  What About the Palestinians?

  Eric Alterman is entitled to his opinion (“The Republicans Heart Netanyahu,” June 17), but to my mind Benjamin Netanyahu was not sticking his finger in the eye of the American president nor playing patsy to the Republicans. Truthfully, it was high time to react vehemently to the timing of the administration’s call to “negotiate.” It…

  Jun 22, 2011 | < 1 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

  Fighting Off Israeli Isolation With a Dose of Bob Dylan and Shakira

  If you’re one of those people who tries to follow the news out of Israel, late June probably found you feeling anxious about the impending launch of the next Gaza protest flotilla. You’re worried about a repeat of the May 2010 fiasco, when the Israeli navy boarded a Turkish protest ship to enforce Israel’s Gaza…

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

  ‘Who Is a Jew?’ Again?!

  On the emotional, bedeviling issue of “Who is a Jew?” in Israel, there’s been a small but welcome move toward Jewish reconciliation and an infuriating roadblock put in the way of further progress. First, the good news, because that’s a precious commodity on this subject. After months and months of negotiations, the Ministry of the…

  Jun 22, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Remembering Yelena Bonner

  When I asked Natan Sharansky to explain how Yelena Bonner complemented the work of her husband, Nobel Prize-winning Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, Sharansky said he could do so quite simply. “Let’s take the example of the Carter letter,” he told me. In the first days of 1977, an American visitor to Moscow arrived at Sakharov’s…

  By Gal Beckerman Jun 22, 2011 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  With YIISA’s Demise, a Lingering Question: Can Academia Ever Ignore Politics?

  Can a clear line be drawn between academic scholarship and political imperatives? Of all the questions raised by Yale University’s recent closure of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA), this one is the most acute. Even with the news that Yale is going to replace YIISA with a new program for…

  By Ben Cohen Jun 21, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Reading Talmud With One Eye on Stalin and the Other on Yogi

  My jet lag seems to be getting worse with age. I got into Israel on Friday afternoon in a daze, just made it to my friends’ house in Jerusalem before Shabbat and have been more or less in the same daze until now, Monday. So I just logged onto our new Forward Thinking blog and…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jun 20, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  If You See Something…

  “Did you see that bag on the ground?” my wife asked. “Don’t worry about it,” I snapped, snatching a quick glance behind me at the blue duffle bag resting on the floor. I had no time to waste on luggage. Body tensed, every sense and sinew poised, I prepared for the physical combat about to…

  By Michael Peck Jun 19, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  A Yiddish Take on Zionist Summer Camp

  What happens when you toss out a centuries-old culture for one that is newly invented and whose center is half a world away? What happens when that new culture is closely tied to a politics that may not be shared by all members of its supposed community? What happens when the culture then gets rejected…

  By Ezra Glinter Jun 16, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Allison Benedikt’s Beinart Moment

  An essay published by the web-zine, The Awl, has gotten a lot of attention in our little corner of the blogosphere. It’s called, “Life After Zionist Summer Camp,” and the author is Allison Benedikt, film editor at the Village Voice. I should say before I go any further that Allison is a friend and the…

  By Gal Beckerman Jun 16, 2011 | 2 min read