In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
Cutting Out Science
The activists from California to Norway who are working to approve ballot initiatives and legislation to ban circumcision probably don’t realize it, but they share something in common with the faith healers currently on trial in Oregon. What ties these disparate stories together is a deep-seated ignorance about and mistrust of medical science. The hottest…
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Opinion Driving While Female
The video is a shaky, homemade effort, obviously shot from the rear passenger seat of a car as it carefully drives around the streets of Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia. At the wheel is a woman in large, dark sunglasses, her head tightly covered by a black scarf, talking animatedly with a friend next to…
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Opinion Lessons of Operation Opera
Thirty years ago, on June 7 at 5:31 in the evening, eight Israeli F-16s attacked Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad. Within 80 seconds they dropped 16 MK-84 iron bombs. When the last two were released by Ilan Ramon — who would become the first Israeli astronaut and one of the crewmembers killed in the…
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Opinion Treating J Street With a Little Respect
What happens when candor collides with civility? These days, discussions of contentious subjects routinely begin with a caution: We should be civil in our disagreements. But if we are to be courteous and respectful toward those with whom we disagree, how do we avoid lapsing into the anemia of political correctness? Respect? I am happy…
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Opinion Jewish Mothers, Tiger Moms, Immigrant Geniuses
Immigration advocates don’t get much of a break in the great national policy debate these days, so there’s an understandable buzz surrounding a new study with some astounding numbers on immigrants, their achievements and their contribution to America. The study, “The Impact of the Children of Immigrants on Scientific Achievement in America,” covers a very…
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Opinion Wash Post Op-Ed Writer: What If Torture Is Morally Wrong — but Effective?
A recent op-ed essay in the Washington Post dissects torture / “enhanced interrogation” and presents evidence that as repugnant as it is, it might work — that is, yield usable intelligence that otherwise wouldn’t have been forthcoming. The writer, M. Gregg Bloche, is a psychiatrist and teaches law at Georgetown. He was a health consultant…
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Opinion Searching for Normalcy in the Holy City
In June 2009, the Gymnasia Rehavia High School in Jerusalem celebrated its centennial. The school was founded in 1909 and became one of the landmarks of Zionist education, preparing graduates for the heady task of building the modern state of Israel. At this gathering, some 3,000 alumni filled the school’s courtyard ranging from recent graduates…
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Opinion What Is Really Happening in New Square?
Eighteen years ago, as a Hasidic student at the yeshiva of New Square, I found myself swept up one morning in the frenzy of a mob. I, along with around two dozen young men, ransacked the private dormitory room of a fellow student. We broke open the door, smashed the lock on the bedside cabinet,…
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Opinion Bank of Israel Governor Stan Fischer Mulls IMF Run
The Wall Street Journal reports that Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel, is examining a formal bid to head the International Monetary Fund, said an official familiar with his thinking, and figures he has an outside shot at the job if there is a deadlock in the voting. Mr. Fischer, a former deputy…
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Opinion Mofaz Calls Bibi Out on Ynet (Hebrew Only — Why Isn’t It Translated…?)
Shaul Mofaz, the chairman of the Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee, wrote an op-ed essay on the Ynet Hebrew website on Wednesday May 25, savagely summing up Netanyahu’s American visit. Strangely, it doesn’t appear on the English site. In fact, it’s not so strange—the English site’s opinion section carries mostly right-wing material (Obama vs….
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Opinion As Bibi Slouches Toward September
Benjamin Netanyahu had ample reason to congratulate himself on a job well done as he headed home from his five-day visit to Washington, D.C. He received thunderous hero’s welcomes from Congress and the pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which greeted him with its biggest-ever display of muscle. All this will serve him…
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