Opinion

• Opinion

  Remembering Yelena Bonner

  When I asked Natan Sharansky to explain how Yelena Bonner complemented the work of her husband, Nobel Prize-winning Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, Sharansky said he could do so quite simply. “Let’s take the example of the Carter letter,” he told me. In the first days of 1977, an American visitor to Moscow arrived at Sakharov’s…

  By Gal Beckerman

  6 min read
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  Opinion

  With YIISA’s Demise, a Lingering Question: Can Academia Ever Ignore Politics?

  Can a clear line be drawn between academic scholarship and political imperatives? Of all the questions raised by Yale University’s recent closure of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA), this one is the most acute. Even with the news that Yale is going to replace YIISA with a new program for…

  By Ben Cohen Jun 21, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Reading Talmud With One Eye on Stalin and the Other on Yogi

  My jet lag seems to be getting worse with age. I got into Israel on Friday afternoon in a daze, just made it to my friends’ house in Jerusalem before Shabbat and have been more or less in the same daze until now, Monday. So I just logged onto our new Forward Thinking blog and…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jun 20, 2011 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry The 3 responses to the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack that could make Jews safer

  

• Emily Tamkin The fundamental miscalculation behind the GOP’s antisemitism crisis

  

The Latest

• 
  Opinion

  If You See Something…

  “Did you see that bag on the ground?” my wife asked. “Don’t worry about it,” I snapped, snatching a quick glance behind me at the blue duffle bag resting on the floor. I had no time to waste on luggage. Body tensed, every sense and sinew poised, I prepared for the physical combat about to…

  By Michael Peck Jun 19, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  A Yiddish Take on Zionist Summer Camp

  What happens when you toss out a centuries-old culture for one that is newly invented and whose center is half a world away? What happens when that new culture is closely tied to a politics that may not be shared by all members of its supposed community? What happens when the culture then gets rejected…

  By Ezra Glinter Jun 16, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Allison Benedikt’s Beinart Moment

  An essay published by the web-zine, The Awl, has gotten a lot of attention in our little corner of the blogosphere. It’s called, “Life After Zionist Summer Camp,” and the author is Allison Benedikt, film editor at the Village Voice. I should say before I go any further that Allison is a friend and the…

  By Gal Beckerman Jun 16, 2011 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Who Owns the Past?

  About a million people each year visit the National Archives in Washington, to see the carefully maintained, original Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. So popular are these founding documents that the Archives recently banned visitors from taking photographs and video, lest the fragile 18th century papers be harmed by excessive…

  Jun 15, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  How To Study Anti-Semitism

  When the news of Yale University’s decision to close its Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism was first made public in early June, the sector of the blogosphere that addresses Jewish issues began to buzz. Discussion, charges and accusations flew. Yale’s critics praised YIISA as a beacon of academic scholarship that had made a…

  By Deborah E. Lipstadt Jun 15, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  I’ve Got a Problem With Barack Obama

  Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone, but the United States has some problems. Fear not, however; for two reasons, I am not going to present here a catalog of our problems. The first reason is that there is not sufficient space to do that; the second is that by now, we are, most of us, quite familiar…

  By Leonard Fein Jun 15, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  When the GOP’s 7 Dwarfs Debate the Economy, Dopey Writes the Script

  A few weeks before CNN’s big Republican presidential pillow-fight, an odd sort of foreshadowing materialized in Jerusalem when a local right-wing think tank, the Jerusalem Center for Market Studies, staged a daylong economics conference. The title was “Free Markets and Social Progress in Israel,” but the unspoken theme was more like “Republicans and Their Jewish…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jun 15, 2011 | 4 min read
• Letters

  A Bogus Issue

  With regard to your June 3 editorial, “Don’t Make Us Choose,” and the numerous other references to the Obama/Netanyahu squabble, I’m shocked and dismayed by the fact that nowhere is there a discussion of the joint statement issued by Secretary Clinton and Prime Minister Netanyahu on November 11, 2010, in which Secretary Clinton is quoted…

  Jun 15, 2011 | < 1 min read