Opinion

• Opinion

  Rebellion in Shas: The Party’s Left Wing Rises from Slumber

  Shas, the Sephardic Orthodox Israeli political party founded by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, is experiencing what looks increasingly like an internal power struggle. The rebels represent something that most people didn’t even know existed: the party’s progressive wing. Shas was launched in 1984 by Yosef and his protégé, Aryeh Deri. The platform included strict Orthodoxy coupled…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  4 min read
• Opinion

  2010 in Verse

  What a year this was, this twenty-ten! Wikileaks, iPads, a Beck named Glenn, Tea Parties and miners in Chile, A campaign that was strange and silly. For Jews in the news it was a year Of achievement and reason to cheer. The Russians emerged, with Sergey Brin, Sharansky and Misha Galperin. Eric Cantor, second in…

  Dec 22, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Schools and Chicken Coops Aren’t Security Threats

  Fawzi Yusef, a farmer in the West Bank village of Yanun, has been unable to reach his olive groves near the Itamar settlement for more than 10 years due to a “military closure.” He might have taken hope from a 2006 decision by Israel’s High Court of Justice. The court ruled that the Israel Defense…

  By Kathleen Peratis Dec 22, 2010 | 3 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

  A Field That No Longer Fits in One Room

  Seriously, how much do you know about sea narratives by Hasidim and their opponents? Were you not listening that day? Surreptitiously texting? Did you perhaps grow up in Syracuse, which is not near the sea and which has had more than 70 inches of snow already this season? That, dear friend, is no excuse: Just…

  By Leonard Fein Dec 22, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  ‘American Concern’ Enabled Exodus

  When questioned about his truly shocking statement that if Soviet Jews were put into gas chambers, it would not be “an American concern,” Henry Kissinger has since responded that this quote “must be viewed in the context of the time,” namely the early-1970s debates over how to help Jews escape the Soviet Union. During the…

  By Richard Schifter Dec 22, 2010 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Mystery of the Dueling New Year’s Days

  The new year traditionally finds us looking inward, asking ourselves the thorny questions we’ve managed to avoid all year. Why am I here? What’s it all about? Where are we headed? What date did I put on the rent check? And, of course, the big one: I did what last night? None of these, though,…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 22, 2010 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  2010: What Came, What Went, What’s Next

  Helen’s Hate By Irin Carmon It took seven decades for Helen Thomas to establish her reputation as an icon among journalists, a role model for women and a hero of the left, and minutes on an Internet video to undo it. For dismissively eliding the Holocaust and historic expulsions of Jews and wishing away Zionism,…

  Dec 22, 2010 | 9 min read
• 
  Opinion

  A Great Jewish Library’s Uncertain Future: What Will Happen to the Valmadonna?

  All of a sudden, the future of one of the great contemporary treasures of Jewish culture is clouded with uncertainty. The treasure in question is the Valmadonna Trust Library, a collection of some 13,000 Hebrew books that had been systematically and assiduously assembled over the last 50 years by a relentless English businessman named Jack…

  By David Stern Dec 20, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Abe Foxman Takes on a New Threat: Jewish Paranoia

  That’s right: Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, has written a forceful essay attacking what he sees as a tendency among Jews to see enemies everywhere and overlook signs of friendship, and thus to risk missing opportunities for peace. Foxman frames his thesis around the Carmel fire and the outside help that…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 20, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Oh, Henry

  Henry Kissinger, diplomat extraordinaire, is 87 years old and still commands attention. Just a few weeks ago, he joined other former Republican statesmen in penning an opinion piece for The Washington Post urging ratification of the nuclear arms treaty with Russia currently being held hostage by their GOP compatriots in Congress. He remains engaged in…

  Dec 15, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Making Service Matter

  Volunteerism comes in all shapes, sizes and outcomes. There are the one-day service projects that can galvanize those who participate, but may not always have the kind of oomph that leads to lasting change. There are long-term commitments like Teach for America and the Peace Corps that are out of reach for most workaday people….

  Dec 15, 2010 | 2 min read