Opinion

• Opinion

  A Speech Chasing a Dream

  “Tepid,” they said, and “flat.” “No specifics,” they charged; “a missed opportunity,” they concluded. When the commentators of CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN and MSNBC all have similar takes on a straightforward event — in this case, the president’s State of the Union message — I’m inclined to invoke my own private anti-trust act. Were there…

  By Leonard Fein

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Returning to Moscow, Where Jews Are Building, Not Fleeing

  I last visited Russia in 1986. I came then, along with the late Judaic studies scholar Benny Kraut, to meet with refuseniks, the courageous Jews who demanded the right to emigrate to Israel. Our activities were covert, and during the course of a single week Benny and I experienced the fear that constantly accompanied the…

  By Jonathan D. Sarna Jan 25, 2011 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Malley & Agha in the N.Y. Review of Books, Channeling Avigdor Liebeman

  Now I’ve Seen Everything Dept.: Among the items featured as recommended reading in the January 20 edition of the Daily Alert, the electronic news digest of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, is the latest essay by Rob Malley and Hussein Agha in The New York Review of Books. Why is this…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 23, 2011 | 5 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson I supported Israel’s actions in Gaza in October 2023 — not anymore

  

• Rob Eshman How anti-Israel rhetoric led to the killing of 2 in Washington, DC

  

• Nora Berman How the Oct. 7 aftermath splintered the New York Dyke March

  

• Dan Perry It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump

  

• Emily Tamkin Even if the Capital Jewish Museum shooter ‘did it for Gaza,’ his actions were antisemitic

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Our Fight on Mount Soledad

  When did separation of church and state become a slogan rather than a core element of the American way of life? When did a cross become an ecumenical symbol that is appropriate for military memorials on federal property? Regrettably, these questions remain unanswered — and our courts have not provided much in the way of…

  By Robert Zweiman Jan 20, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A Rainbow in Tucson

  Here is just one of the very many Tucson stories that have now become part of who we are: It is a story told by the political commentator Mark Shields, quoting his friend Allen Ginsberg, a historian in Maine: What we have witnessed (in part) is a white, Catholic, Republican federal judge murdered on his…

  By Leonard Fein Jan 19, 2011 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Make Worms, Not War?

  Two points struck us as we read the fascinating story in the January 16 edition of The New York Times detailing the reputedly intricate arrangement between America and Israel to test and unleash a computer worm that appears to have seriously undermined Iran’s efforts at making a nuclear bomb. The story quotes military and intelligence…

  Jan 19, 2011 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Arab Street’s Dream

  The speech that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered January 13 at a forum in Doha, Qatar, has been rightly lauded for its bold and direct push for governmental reform in the Middle East. Her argument was not based on a civics lesson, nor on the need to embrace democracy for democracy’s sake, but…

  Jan 19, 2011 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Making Holocaust Remembrance Matter

  On January 27, the 66th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the United Nations and much of the world will be observing Holocaust Remembrance Day. Sadly, the rhetoric of commemoration will once again be severely undercut by the international community’s wholly inadequate response to the numerous genocides that have taken place, and continue to take…

  By Menachem Z. Rosensaft Jan 19, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Losing Labor: What If the Party Is Over?

  A few summers back, I took my kids up to the Kinneret to see the first kibbutz, Degania Aleph, and to visit the lakeside cemetery where the prophets of modern Israel are buried. I wanted the children to sit for a moment beside the grave of the poet Rachel, whose love song to that lake…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 19, 2011 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Debbie Friedman’s Healing Prayer

  As word spread that Debbie Friedman was gravely ill, people around the world prayed for her recovery. Many turned to “Mi Shebeirach,” her version of the traditional Jewish prayer for healing and probably her best-known song. Our prayers and our loving song did not prevent Debbie’s death, but neither were they offered in vain. Indeed,…

  By Drorah Setel Jan 19, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Israel’s Dangerous Musical Chairs: Barak, Bibi, the Flotilla and the Iranian Threat

  Must reading on Barak’s resignation from Labor: Haaretz military correspondent Amir Oren writes today about the very complicated relationship between Barak’s defection, the retirement of Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and his replacement by Yoav Galant, and the Turkish flotilla. Barak defected to save his own skin, of course. Avi Braverman and Buzhi Herzog were…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 18, 2011 | 3 min read