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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Opinion
U.S. Envoy ‘Blames’ Israel for Bias (Echoing IDF)
The long knives are out for another Jewish liberal who committed the sin of stating the uncomfortably obvious truth about the causal effect between Israeli policy and Muslim anti-Semitism. It’s a truth that has been studied by Israeli security experts and acknowledged by Israeli governments, but it runs counter to the right-wing doctrine that Israeli…
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Opinion Only Nice Words for Obama
You wouldn’t expect a host to say anything bad about his guest of honor. But American Council for World Jewry chairman Jack Rosen was especially gracious about the message delivered by President Obama at a fundraiser held at Rosen’s Manhattan home. “He made, I think, a solid case for having stood with Israel on the…
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Opinion It’s Time for Dialogue With Hamas
I was not in Stockholm in 1988. More precisely, I had declined an invitation to join what turned out to be a five-person delegation of American Jews who flew to Stockholm to meet with Yasser Arafat. I had cogent reasons for demurring, but I applauded the gumption of the five who went, and was pleasantly…
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Opinion A Dissenting Opinion on ‘Aba-Gate’
This is a difficult moment for American Jews. To wake up and discover, as did the Forward’s Gal Beckerman, that the Israeli Ministry of Absorption is actively trying to convince Israeli expatriates living in the U.S. that they should come back to Israel by dramatizing the risk of assimilation of their kids and grandkids —…
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Opinion Occupy Protests Show Radical Potential
At the end of a long day of peaceful demonstrations in Oakland this past November, a few hundred protesters — many wearing masks or covering their faces with bandanas — massed for a night of rage, smashing windows, chucking rocks and sparking bonfires. In the aftermath, the city’s police chief described the perpetrators as “generally…
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Opinion Robin Hood in Reverse
Senator Tom Coburn, Republican from Oklahoma, votes with his party far too often for our taste on issues such as abortion (he’s against it), gun control (ditto) and tax cuts (he’d keep them). But the medical doctor from Muskogee is admirably willing to challenge the GOP presumption that the very rich can’t possibly pay a…
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Opinion Obama Trumpets Pro-Israel Record
President Barack Obama reasserted his administration’s support for Israel to a group of donors convened by one of America’s most influential Jewish fundraisers in Manhattan Tuesday night. “I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more in terms of the security of the state of Israel than…
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Opinion Barney Frank and the Financial Crisis
Democrats have never recovered from the trauma of 1994, when they lost the House of Representatives to Newt Gingrich’s Republicans and found themselves in the minority for the first time in 40 years. One Democrat emerged relatively unruffled, however: Barney Frank of Massachusetts. “I’m used to being in the minority,” he famously wisecracked in a…
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Letters Grappling With Tradition
With regard to a December 2 Forward article, “Conservatives Grapple With Gay Wedding Rite,” we wish to clarify our position on the draft of a new ceremony for gay and lesbian couples in discussion before the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. The drafting of these model ceremonies of commitment and separation, in…
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Letters Academic Concerns
The Touro College community was deeply disappointed by two recent Forward articles: “Is Jerusalem Online U. a Real College?” (November 11) and “Touro Under Scrutiny Over Israel Class” (November 18). Touro College is a respected, fully accredited, Jewish-sponsored independent institution of higher and professional education with some 19,000 students enrolled at schools and divisions throughout…
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Opinion For Rick Perry, 21 Is New 18
So Rick Perry stands before a town hall meeting at the Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm’s College in New Hampshire and, on his own, with no prompting or sneaky questioning, made it clear that he thought only Americans 21 years old and over are allowed to vote. This may be one of the stupidest…
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Culture ‘My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish’ — the Knicks chant capturing New York’s soul
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Books In ‘Something We Said,’ Richard Pryor’s daughter finds words to discuss the unspeakable
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Opinion It’s time for Jews who love Israel to give up on Zionism
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Opinion Trump’s humiliation of Netanyahu marks a sea change in the US-Israel relationship
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Theater ‘Dirty Dancing’ be damned. A new musical shows another side of the Borscht Belt
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Books When a Jewish language is lost, we lose more than just words
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Fast Forward FBI charges 8 tied to U of Michigan pro-Palestinian movement with threatening officials, Jewish federation
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Fast Forward This Israeli filmmaker harshly criticizes his country. Pro-Palestinian activists boycotted him anyway