Opinion

• Letters

  Charity Shouldn’t Pay for Exorbitant Salaries

  I read the Forward’s December 17 story “Women Continue To Lag Behind in Top Nonprofit Positions and Pay” with my mouth literally agape. While I always suspected Jewish communal leaders in top positions made a great deal of money, I was shocked to see those numbers put on paper — and frankly, I’m appalled. Of…

  2 min read
• Letters

  The Right Balance for Religious Freedom

  Your December 10 editorial “Hiring Rights and Wrongs” notes several ways in which President Obama’s recent executive order “include[s] important safeguards” for constitutional principles, but you then criticize the president for refusing to deny faith-based organizations the right to hire their staff on the basis of religion. Moreover, you assert that it “was the law”…

  Dec 15, 2010 | 1 min read
• Opinion

  How Kissinger Saved the Jews

  The year was 1973, and Henry Kissinger, a Jewish refugee from German Nazism and President Richard Nixon’s national security adviser, made a staggeringly distasteful comment about Soviet Jews: If the Soviets “put Jews into gas chambers,” Kissinger said, it’s “not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.” Maybe. No one has ever gone broke overstating…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 15, 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

  Roger Cohen’s Recklessness

  Roger Cohen, a New York Times Op-Ed columnist, is not obsessed with Israel; it only seems that way. During the last 10 weeks, only(!) five of his Times columns have dealt directly with Israel. I admit that I share the obsession, but not the places it takes him. In his column on December 10, for…

  By Leonard Fein Dec 15, 2010 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Israel Doesn’t Need the West Bank To Be Secure

  When everything is said and done, how important is the West Bank to Israel’s defense? To answer the question, our best starting point is the situation before the 1967 war. At that time, the Arab armed forces surrounding Israel outnumbered the Jewish state’s army by a ratio of 3-to-1. Not only was the high ground…

  By Martin van Creveld Dec 15, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Obstructing a Middle East Rescue Effort

  Special Middle East envoy George Mitchell is back in the region conducting his shuttle diplomacy, settlement construction continues apace and the much-anticipated speech of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton managed to avoid hard choices. It’s business as usual, so presumably we can all relax — Israel has dodged another peace bullet. No so fast….

  By Daniel Levy Dec 15, 2010 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Standing on Henrietta Szold’s Shoulders

  One of Henrietta Szold’s earliest memories was being lifted on her father’s shoulders to glimpse the funeral cortege of Abraham Lincoln. Today we stand on her shoulders and admire the great American Jewish icon she became. Best known as the founder of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization, Szold continues to inspire 150 years after her…

  By Shuly Rubin Schwartz Dec 15, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Joint Ban by 300 Israeli Rabbis on Renting Homes to Arabs Draws Several Press Releases in Protest

  The conflict between the Jewish state and the democratic state is growing apace. The rabbis’ letter forbidding Jews to rent homes to non-Jews (meaning, mostly, Arabs) is attracting a steadily growing list of signatories. As of Thursday night it had about 300 rabbis signed on, according to a report on Israel National News, the English…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 10, 2010 | 4 min read
• Letters

  Columbia’s Hillel Is Wrong: Lecturing Can Lead To Learning, Just Ask Any Professor

  I find totally unacceptable the justification by the Columbia Hillel director for forcing the Hillel-affiliated student group to withdraw its sponsorship of a campus lecture by John Ging, director of UNRWA’s Gaza operations (“Columbia Student Group Drops Sponsorship of Gaza Talk Under Pressure,” November 26). “A format that is simply standing up at a podium,…

  Dec 8, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  No Link Between Stopping Iran and Pushing Peace? Rabin Knew Better

  Most of the secrets that have leaked out so far from WikiLeaks have proved to be trivial, like Muammar Gadhafi’s blond nurse, or screamingly obvious, like Hamid Karzai’s sleaze. That makes the really big news stand out in bold relief. Take the matter of Arab leaders calling for America to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. The…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 8, 2010 | 4 min read
• Letters

  We Have Old Songs, Too

  In Lenore Skenazy’s November 26 column, “Why I Go Caroling,” she marvels that the “caroling oeuvre… is so old,” and asks, “When else do people spontaneously sing songs ripped from the Middle Ages?” I’d encourage her to learn some of the many beautiful Shabbat table songs, known as zemirot or piyyutim. While the lyrics are…

  Dec 8, 2010 | < 1 min read