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
Women Honorees Barred From Science Award Stage
The following article was posted today (December 20) on the Hebrew-language website DoctorsOnly.co.il (the translation is mine). It pretty much speaks for itself. Thanks to Chemi Shalev for flagging it on Facebook. Exclusion of Women in the Health System: Two female researchers who won an award were not permitted to come up on stage to…
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Opinion Beyond the Protests
There’s the committee. And then there’s the person. The Trajtenberg Committee was formed last August by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and charged with devising policy responses to the social justice protests that were sweeping the nation. The committee presented its report at the end of September, and it’s been the subject of government action…
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Opinion Darfuri Helps Fellow Newcomers Get Start
I intended to write about an Israel too often overlooked. I wanted a feel-good story for a change, a story that did not include the word “however.” And I had, so I thought, exactly such a story, the truly inspiring story of a 30 year-old man — we’ll call him Hamza — with whom I…
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Opinion Yeshiva U. Students Can Talk Sex
When one of my editors at the YU Beacon, an online magazine produced by a group of Orthodox students at Yeshiva University, sent me an essay she had received from a friend, I responded to the submission with two words: “Love it!” The anonymous nonfiction piece described a Stern College student’s first sexual experience, in…
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Opinion Jack Abramoff Says He’s Sorry, Sort Of
When lobbyist Jack Abramoff appeared in federal court, where he was eventually convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy, he faced a sartorial dilemma. Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew, wondered whether he wear his kippah and risk smearing the Jewish people with his transgressions? Or should he cover his silver mop with a fedora, which would diminish…
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Opinion Remembering Christopher Hitchens
A journalist friend of mine emailed me at 1 am Friday morning to tell me that Christopher Hitchens had died. The news brought with it a deep sadness and I instantly recited the Jewish prayer upon hearing of the passing of a friend, “Blessed is the true Judge.” That instinctive religious action captured the paradox…
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Opinion Devilish Pact With Europe’s Right Wing
Economic upheaval and strife in Europe have historically begat fierce nationalism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism. Faced with a serious debt crisis, severe budget cuts, grim austerity, rising unemployment and creeping inflation, the current depression is no exception. Since the fall of 2008, reported incidents of anti-Semitism have risen across the continent. In Britain, a record number…
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Opinion What Voter Fraud?
This isn’t Russia, you know, where allegations of massive voter fraud in the latest parliamentary election were so outrageous that the chairman of the ruling party had to resign. Nor is the United States like any number of African nations, where brutal dictators somehow manage to be swept into office by unrealistic margins again and…
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Opinion Get to the Damn Table? Guess Who Said It First
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has drawn a lot of heat in the last few weeks, on himself and the administration, for his December 2 comment that Israel needs to “just get to the damn table” with the Palestinians. After all, his critics note, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been declaring since 2009 that he’s ready to…
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Opinion Orwell Would Love Israel’s Anti-NGO Bill
Editor’s Clarification: An earlier version of this article mistakenly suggested that NGO Monitor supports the Knesset’s current NGO legislation. It does not. The article has been changed to clarify this point. It was one of the boldest assaults on an Israeli military base in years: A gang of some 50 hostile West Bankers stormed a…
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Letters Forgotten Pact
J.J. Goldberg is right to remind us (“What We Have Forgotten About Pearl Harbor,” December 2) of America’s refusal to join the battle against the Nazis until the Japanese brought the war to American soil. But some key facts are missing. When he seeks to distinguish between “the Nazi regime of malignant intentions and utter…
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