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.
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
We too were taken aback by Rick Perry’s new campaign video — the swagger, the Christian language, the denigration of gays, and America described as feminine with Perry posing as its shining defender. He was, for certain, trying to appeal to evangelical voters, and perhaps he’ll be releasing the Jewish version of the ad in…
Why does inequality rankle us so? Why has it undergirded the protests and occupations of so many frustrated Americans? The reasons were well stated in President Obama’s recent speech in Kansas: Stubborn inequality stifles hope, perverts our political process and seems fundamentally unfair, a violation of the core American precept that only your ability and…
Imagine that contemporary American Jews run their own government system made up of just three ministries. Depending on how you see the world, you work in one of the three. Are you a Department of Defense Jew — someone who sees threats to Jews and Israel at every turn? A Department of Education Jew —…
I think it’s time we faced up to the hard truth about Louis Pasteur. The famed 19th century French scientist was a rank bigot. He’s been getting a free ride for too long, and it’s got to stop. The evidence is shocking but undeniable. It seems that while Pasteur was supposedly devoting his career to…
The third annual Forward survey of the leadership and compensation of the top national Jewish not-for-profits will be published tomorrow. In it, you’ll find answers to questions such as: Are more women running these organizations this year? Why is it so financially advantageous to be a Republican? Which top executive also has his wife and…
We were disturbed by the angle of your December 2 article “StandWithUs Draws Sharp Line on Israel,” which tried to discredit us as “right wing,” and absurdly asked whether StandWithUs should register as an agent of a foreign government even though your own sources emphatically rejected this notion. You even tried to imply that there…
Students at the University of California, Berkeley, have stood at the forefront of progressive movements throughout history, from free speech, to civil rights, to the recent protests against tuition fee hikes. Student activists at our school, many of them Jewish, have displayed great political courage, following in the footsteps of other Jewish leaders who have…
Three weeks ago, the Forward published a story about the dramatic increase in arrests of Orthodox men for child sexual abuse in Brooklyn. The figure that the Forward published — 89 men arrested and charged between October 2009 and October 2011 — was given to this newspaper during two separate conversations with the Brooklyn District…
To understand the reason that Alan Gross, an American citizen, has been languishing in a Cuban jail for the past two years, it is instructive to listen to an exchange that took place recently at a hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.) demanded that Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of state…
For my money, the response to the Israeli absorption ministry’s “Bring ‘Em Home” video campaign was a tad overblown. It’s not like tenuousness of the next generation’s Jewish identity and the fraying of ties to Israel haven’t ever come up before. Be that as it may, some of the replies have been particularly entertaining. Here’s…
The Thanksgiving turkey leftovers are finished or in the freezer, but a central question remains: Were you eating poultry that was stuffed not only with fresh herbs and bread crumbs, but also with antibiotics that are proven to be dangerous to humans? This is no longer an idle threat. Good research shows that up to…