Opinion

• 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…

  < 1 min read
• Letters

  Don’t Forget the ‘Braidel’

  I loved your dreidel article (“‘Oh Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel,’” November 26). However, you did not mention my favorite dreidel. For some Jews, the Braille Dreidel or “Braidel” is the only Hanukkah joy they can actually “see.” Jews who are blind can easily play dreidel because the letters are printed in Braille! Rabbi Lynne Landsberg Senior…

  Dec 8, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Don’t Treat Conservatives Like Apostates

  For several months, I have been an active participant in the community-wide campaign of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs to restore civility to Jewish public life. As a result, I am routinely asked: What does civility really require of us, besides hushed voices and respectful listening in public meetings and discussions? Is this just…

  By Noam Neusner Dec 8, 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

• Letters

  Why Didn’t the Palestinians Get Their State Before 1967?

  In your November 19 editorial “Whose Jerusalem?” you accurately point out that, from 1948 to 1967, much of East Jerusalem was part of the “West Bank.” However, the editorial draws the wrong conclusion from this important piece of history. In 1947, U.N. Resolution 181 created not only a Jewish state out of the British Mandate,…

  Dec 8, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Letters

  Foxman Knows That Being a Leader Means Defending Human Rights and Israel

  Abraham Foxman is one of the best known and one of the most formidable of Jewish communal leaders (“As Some Retire From ADL, Will Abe Be Next?” November 5). A Holocaust survivor, Abe manifests a visceral understanding of the requirements of Jewish leadership. He never wavers in his commitment to the welfare of the Jewish…

  Dec 8, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  A Boycott Spreads

  You know the delegitimization campaign targeting Israel has reached new heights of absurdity when the rallying cry against the Jewish state is now being waged with the help of the chickpea. What a low blow — Israel’s enemies are hitting where it really hurts: hummus. Hummus, that pasty spread without which pita has no purpose,…

  By Thane Rosenbaum Dec 8, 2010 | 3 min read
• Letters

  Why Disparage a Policy That Protects Jewish Students?

  It’s troubling that a professor of Jewish history at the University of California, Davis, would disparage the federal government’s new policy affording Jewish students the same civil rights protections that have been guaranteed to other minority groups for close to 50 years (“Federal Civil Rights Policy Expanded To Protect Jewish College Students,” November 12). David…

  Dec 8, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Opening Our Tent

  Intermarriage has taken center stage this past year. The marriage of Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvkinsky spurred a national conversation about intermarriage. The Rotem bill roiled Israel-Diaspora relations, sparking considerable debate over conversion policy and the question of how to incorporate the hundreds of thousands of Israelis from intermarried families into the Jewish people. Even…

  By Edgar M. Bronfman Dec 8, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Our Money, Their Salaries

  The Forward created its annual survey of executive compensation in Jewish nonprofits to enable our readers to make informed choices about their own philanthropic giving and to hold leaders accountable for their pay and performance. That’s what we do in America. If the salary of the occupant of the Oval Office is public information, surely…

  Dec 8, 2010 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Who by Fire?

  Who before their time, indeed. Nothing is more painful, more devastating, than the absurdly untimely death of the young, here compounded by the realization that they died knowingly, terror their companion, as the incineration engulfed them. May their memory be for a blessing. And what can we learn from this disaster? The uplifting part, of…

  By Leonard Fein Dec 6, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  As Forest Burns, Fire Gear Is AWOL: Israel Gives ‘Low Priority to Anything That Doesn’t Shoot’

  The fire in the Carmel is horrible, and the deaths are painful and deeply felt. But the tragedy that played out wasn’t a twist of fate or an act of God. It was an act of persistent, long-term, almost willful government negligence. Israel has almost no firefighting capacity—pitifully few firefighters working with a tiny stock…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 5, 2010 | 5 min read