Opinion

• Letters

  Archaeology’s Political Context

  The May 6 op-ed by Israel Finkelstein, “In the Eye of Jerusalem’s Archaeological Storm” underscores some problems and misconceptions surrounding the “City of David” in the Palestinian village of Silwan. Much of the site lies beneath village houses. It is this intermingling of ancient remains and modern homes that makes archaeology in the City of…

  < 1 min read
• Opinion

  A Perp Walk

  The sordid tale of Dominque Strauss-Kahn — as of this writing, he is sitting in a New York jail and charged with sexual assault — is both a cautionary sign of progress and a warning of how difficult it is to convince even supposedly smart people that rape is a violent crime. The details of…

  May 18, 2011 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  A New Artist In Residence

  The Jewish press has a long and proud history of publishing cartoons that offer cutting commentary on our world and satirize the actions of the powerful — even its own. Abraham Cahan, the legendary editor of the Forward, was the subject of sometimes brutal depictions by the artists of his day, who in a few…

  May 18, 2011 | < 1 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Trump is backed into a corner on Iran. Get ready for him to start blaming Jews

  

• Dan Perry Israelis have no idea where the Iran war is going. But they know it’s part of Netanyahu’s campaign

  

• Emily Tamkin Hungary is poised to topple an authoritarian leader. American Jews have something to learn

  

• Jay Michaelson Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it. 

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  On Memorial Day, Reason to Remember

  Sixty-six years ago this month, the war in Europe ended. My father, a corporal in a combat engineer company that had fought from Normandy through the Bulge, remembers looking up at a squadron of Allied bombers dropping leaflets over recently liberated territory. “Nazis Quit!” they read. He still has one of those leaflets, laminated, hanging…

  By Michael Oren May 18, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Sacred Command of Income Redistribution

  On Thursday, May 5, the nation’s Catholic bishops issued a dramatic appeal to the members of the U.S. Senate, and it wasn’t about abortion. In a letter sent to all 100 members of that august chamber, the bishops urged the lawmakers to ensure that the upcoming federal budget doesn’t “rely on disproportionate cuts in essential…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 18, 2011 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Immigration Reform Is Our Jewish Responsibility

  President Obama recently announced his recommitment to achieving comprehensive immigration reform, a term that has become shorthand for legislation to fix the country’s broken immigration system. We — as Americans and as Jews — have a special responsibility to help him achieve this goal. We should praise the president’s message and this initiative, but we…

  By Gideon Aronoff May 17, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Strauss-Kahn, French Jewish Leader? IMF Head Does to African Maid What Global Finance Does to Africa

  Two thoughts about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund and currently Riker’s Island’s most distinguished resident… Before his arrest, he was considered the clear front-runner in France’s upcoming presidential election, set for next April. Were he elected, he would have been the sixth Jewish leader of France. Despite its reputation for anti-Semitism,…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 17, 2011 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Yediot Obtains Obama’s Speech: Renew Talks, Recognize Jewish State, Stop Settlements

  Yediot Ahronot obtained a copy of President Obama’s upcoming Middle East speech, its website Ynet reports. The speech, to be delivered at 6 p.m., will call on Jerusalem and Ramallah to reignite the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, saying it is the only way to achieve viable peace. Obama stands to demand the Palestinian Authority recognize…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 17, 2011 | < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Hunting Demjanjuk

  At long last, the seemingly endless saga of Ivan Demjanjuk appears to have finally come to an end. What began in the United States in the 1970s as an investigation of a suspected armed SS Ukrainian guard at the Sobibor death camp, concluded more than 35 years later in a Munich courtroom with a verdict…

  By Efraim Zuroff May 16, 2011 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  The Twin Traumas of Gaza and Sderot

  “You cannot begin to imagine the fear that infects everyone here. Even before Cast Lead, we felt it. But then, when the bombing began, it was devastating. And no one can know whether at any moment it will resume.” Those are the words of Dr. Eyad Sarraj, the senior psychiatrist in Gaza, a man widely…

  By Leonard Fein May 15, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Readers’ Questions Answered: Israel, Hebrew, Guns and Me

  Given the evidently growing interest in the details of my biography, I’d like to offer a quick rundown of the most frequently questioned data. I lived in Israel for six years during the 1970s, serving for several years as an Israel and Zionism educational programs specialist at the World Zionist Organization in Jerusaledm and then…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 13, 2011 | 2 min read