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
Gaza’s ‘Tunnel Economy’ Is Booming
In early November, Muhammad Al Qotati, a worker at the smuggling tunnels in Rafah, Gaza, welcomed my friend, journalist Nick Pelham, and me to a walk-around. The area he showed us is less than half a mile from the town of Rafah and about the distance of a football field from Egypt; it looks a…
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Opinion Orthodox Rabbi on the Dangers of State Religion
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat, the charismatic ex-New Yorker and outspokenly moderate settler leader, offers some startlingly bold criticisms of Israeli Orthodoxy in a Jerusalem Post column titled “Has the Chief Rabbinate outlived its usefulness?” His bottom line is that it hasn’t—at least, he hopes it hasn’t—but he hints that it’s teetering on the edge…
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Opinion Jewish Vote Not a Problem for Obama
As the 2012 election approaches and Republican presidential candidates continue to attack President Obama on his Middle East policies, we can expect to hear increasing chatter and anecdotes about a “Jewish problem for Obama and Democrats.” These claims may capture headlines, but they ignore the data that demonstrate how Obama’s only problem with Jewish voters…
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Opinion Predicting Jewish Vote More Complicated
Understanding the Jewish vote requires appreciating at least four realities: 1. Impelled by our history and tradition, American Jews remain deeply devoted to the values of the Democratic Party and repelled by those of the Republicans. Like Democrats, Jews are committed to a pluralistic society that respects the rights of all; to creating opportunity while…
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Opinion Jews Just One Piece of Obama Puzzle
American Jews have historically been a critical base for the Democratic Party. This has not changed. Jewish voters’ affinity for the Democratic Party is deeply rooted in both the faith’s core tenets, such as tzedakah and tikkun olam,, and in the particular evolution of a post-New Deal Democratic Party championing civil rights and liberties, separation…
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Opinion A Divine Society?
Judge Richard Goldstone is back in the news, having written in an OpEd piece in the New York Times that it is a canard to define Israel as an apartheid state. That has set off the predictable reactions, from “Goldstone is whitewashing Israel’s behavior” to “Goldstone has finally seen the light.” All quite beside the…
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Opinion Now on Sunday, Too
Back in June, The Forward returned to its roots as a daily publication, this time through cyberspace. We began to offer the kind of fresh, new content that used to come with the morning paper: news stories and analyses, arts and feature reporting, opinion columns, breaking news headlines and the breadth of stuff contained in…
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Opinion Perry Does Letterman With ‘Top 10 Excuses’
David Letterman just presented an amazing Top Ten list: “Top Ten Rick Perry Excuses,” presented by Texas Governor Rick Perry (for real). He actually did a pretty good job – got some outright laughs, hammed it up just right. If anything could save his candidacy, this might have been it. No. 10: Actually, there were…
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Opinion What Globalization Has Wrought
Fans of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman might get a kick out of this. Nearly a decade and a half ago, the acclaimed economist savagely reviewed a new book on the perils of economic globalization, dismissing it as “simplistic,” “foolish,” “thoroughly silly” and more. He said the author, Rolling Stone investigative journalist William Greider,…
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Opinion ‘A Very Serious Charge’
Twenty years ago, when a law professor named Anita Hill testified before a phalanx of United States senators about her former boss, Clarence Thomas, one of her male interlocutors — they were, remember, all men — belittled her description of Thomas’s lewd, inappropriate behavior. “This sexual harassment crap” is what he said it was, as…
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Opinion Attack on Iran Unlikely — For Now
The recent intimations that Israel is planning a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure are not likely to lead to any such action anytime soon. More likely, they reflect an attempt to generate stronger international sanctions, coming as they did just as Vienna’s International Atomic Energy Agency was about to release a report confirming Israel’s…
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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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Fast Forward Helen Mirren criticizes Israel at film festival after being called ‘evil Zionist’ in viral video
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Fast Forward After dozens of Jewish girls get lost in NY creek tunnel, antisemitic comments follow online
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Yiddish דער קאַמף צװישן טראַדיציע און רעװאָלוציע אין סאָװעטיש־ייִדישער קולטור The battle between tradition and revolution in Soviet-Yiddish culture
סאָװעטיש־ייִדיש איז געװען אַ ראַדיקאַלער עקספּערימענט, װאָס פֿאַרנעמט אַ װיכטיקן פּלאַץ אױף דער װעלטמאַפּע פֿון ייִדישער קולטור
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News A Jewish nonprofit was training men to prevent sexual abuse. Then the funding disappeared