In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
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Letters
No Comparison
In Leonard Fein’s December 4 column, “It’s Time for Dialogue With Hamas,” he compares the PLO with Hamas. But, while the PLO is a secular organization motivated by nationalism, Hamas, an extreme fundamentalist group, is motivated by religion. Fein should read the prologue of Hamas’ founding charter. It states that Hamas’ aim is a war…
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Letters A Different Context
I just read the op-ed by Thai Jones, “From Russia to Zuccotti Park, the Parodox of Anarchism” in the December 2 issue. I am puzzled by the effort to somehow equate the 21st century protests against the inequality of wealth in America with the Russian revolution, which was against the brutality of the tsarist regimes….
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Opinion GOP Gets It Right on Israel
The Republican presidential contenders have campaigned hard for the pro-Israel vote. Recently they each made bold promises of fealty to Israel while addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition (save for Ron Paul, who wasn’t invited) and sparred verbally, not just over whether the United States should support a Palestinian state, but over whether the Palestinians were…
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Opinion Israel Misses Point With Ad Campaign
The advertising campaign by Israel’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption aimed at inspiring expatriate Israelis to return to Israel so offended American Jews that it eventually was canceled by Prime Minister Netanyahu himself. One of the ads suggested that a peril of Israelis coming to the United States and raising children here is the likely loss…
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Opinion The Shearing Heard ‘Round the Hasidic World
Never before has the shaving of one man’s beard prompted such an outcry. When Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu posted pics, early Tuesday, of his newly-shaven (and nearly unrecognizable) face, and later posted a statement on his blog saying that there’s “no more Chassidic reggae superstar” and “sorry folks, all you get is me….no alias,” many…
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Opinion JNF Board Member Quits Over Evictions
Some of my earliest Jewish memories involve dropping spare change in the Jewish National Fund’s iconic little blue boxes. I was proud that my money would help plant trees in Israel. The JNF, I knew, was making the desert bloom. As an adult, I became a member of the organization’s Washington, D.C., board and moved…
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Opinion Somebody’s Raising Taxes on the Rich
The growing ideological connection between the Republican Party in the United States and the Netanyahu government in Israel doesn’t extend to tax policy, it seems. With little fanfare, the Knesset last week approved an increase in corporate taxes and personal taxes on the very rich, going where the GOP here threatens never to tread. The…
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Opinion That ‘Invented People’? The Idea Is Invented
Newt Gingrich’s December 9 Declaration of Palestinian Inventedness (“we’ve had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs”) caused a bit of a stir at the Saturday night GOP debate. Both Mitt Romney and Ron Paul condemned the remark as, in Paul’s words, “just stirrin’ up trouble.” Interestingly, though, both agreed that Gingrich’s point…
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Opinion Arabs Should Take Cue From Israel
As the countries and peoples of the Middle East seek to forge their political futures, they, or at least some of them, are searching for models of democracy that they can follow. Of course, they can look to democratic theory, but how many ordinary people will crack open John Locke, the Federalist Papers, or John…
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Opinion Israel Turning Into Theocracy
It is becoming increasingly obvious that a break between Israel and Diaspora Jewry, particularly its American variety, is fast approaching. The reason for this is that Israel is slowly but inexorably turning into a conservative theocracy while the Diaspora is largely dedicated to liberal democracy. The strategy of the “pro-Israel” camp among American Jewish organizations…
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Opinion Searching for the ‘Divine Society’
Let’s start with the good news. Dorit Beinish, president of Israel’s Supreme Court and vehement opponent of what she calls “incitement against the court,” exempts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from her indictment. And rightly so. In her remarks during a conference on public law, Beinish mentioned the role of Netanyahu in blocking the bills that…
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