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
Crossing the Line
Rabbi Mendy Goldberg of the Chabad House of Coram, on Long Island, N.Y., was one of scores of people interviewed by Forward reporters examining the scope and impact of a federal program providing grants to nonprofits at risk for terrorism. “There were a few incidents of anti-Semitic slurs and vandalism,” he said. “Then we found…
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Opinion Jewish Groups on Obama: JCPA Liked the Speech, ZOA Isn’t That Into Him
Jewish organizations generally don’t react quickly to events unless they involve terror attacks in Israel or blatantly anti-Semitic statements by foreign dictators, but one organization managed to whip out a response to President Obama’s jobs speech—a favorable one, as it happens—less than an hour after the president finished speaking. The quick response was from the…
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Letters Arab-American Thanks
Thanks so much for your September 9 editorial “Remember Who We Are.” I am an Arab-American (though not a Muslim one) and I really appreciated the thoughtful reminder that the Jewish and Muslim communities have much in common in terms of their liberal attitudes and eager participation in American life. We all must confront the…
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Letters Let Ethiopians In
Len Lyons’s September 9 article, “The Last Ethiopian Jews Finally Make Aliyah,” is a fine example of a disappearing genre: a newspaper article that takes a relatively unknown, complicated subject and, in broad comprehensible strokes, lays out the critical issues. However, one of the issues discussed in Mr. Lyon’s fine piece deserves a little more…
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Letters Supporting Israel’s Protests
Nathan Guttman’s September 2 article, “New Israel Fund Alone in Funding Israel Protests,” stated that “the leaders of most major American Jewish organizations have been noticeably silent” about the demonstrations taking place in the State of Israel calling for new economic policies by the Netanyahu government. The Jewish Labor Committee’s support of the demonstrations can…
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Opinion Israeli Protests Give Masses a Reason to Speak Out
If you’ve ever been to Tel Aviv’s Kikar Hamedina, the circular public plaza in the north of the city, you’ll know just how utterly large it is. It’s a massive, usually empty expanse ringed by posh stores like Louis Vuitton and Gucci — the epicenter of Israeli capitalism, if you will. And so it was…
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Opinion For Jews, Holiday Season Offers Chance To Set Aside Pride
Well, here we are in the month of Elul, approaching the sacred Jewish season of repentance and forgiveness. This is the month set aside in tradition for practicing our shofar blowing and apologizing to our neighbors. So what’s the big message out of the Jewish state? “No apologies, no way.” And a happy new year…
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Opinion J Street Opposes Palestinian Statehood Bid
As we get closer to September 20 and the opening of the UN’s General Assembly, all the various voices of the American Jewish universe are beginning to state their opinion about whether the Palestinian push for UN recognition is a wise or foolish step. We’ve actually got an editorial, stating our own position, which will…
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Opinion Israel’s Social Justice Protest, By the Numbers
In 1983, when news of the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps became known, about 300,000 Israelis jammed the streets of Tel Aviv to protest their government’s involvement. It was a very big deal, thought to be one of the largest demonstrations of its kind in Israel’s history. The protests for social justice…
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Opinion Is Derfner the Problem, or Are the Israeli People?
There is still much discussion about the firing early last week of Larry Derfner, the lefty Jerusalem Post columnist. Derfner wrote in our pages that he regretted making it seem like he was legitimizing Palestinian terror against Israelis. He intended only to shock his readers into thinking about what some of the reasons behind the…
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Opinion A Decade Later, Children of 9/11 Look Back
These essays were written by writers for New Voices Magazine, the national Jewish student magazine. For more essays on this theme, go to the New Voices website. Joshua Walfish What started as a beautiful, sunny day in Rockville, Md. ended with images of darkness that will be etched in my mind for the rest of…
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