Opinion

• Opinion

  Opening Minds on Campus

  We are a brother and sister of Pakistani descent who grew up in Arizona and are now enrolled at two of America’s finest universities. We are passionately interested in Jewish-Muslim dialogue because we believe the only way to decrease religious tensions is through engagement on a personal level. At college, we’ve found a lot of…

  By Imran Hafiz and Yasmine Hafiz

  3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Equal Time for Arab Voices

  As the two-state solution in Palestine/Israel continues to dissolve, there is much consternation in the national media about what Jewish Americans think of current developments. Will their support of President Obama wane if he presses Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu too strongly on settlements? What will they demand regarding Iran? What do they make of J…

  By Alia Malek Oct 27, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Good That Storytelling Does

  When I was a teenager in the early 1990s, several young women at my Boston-area high school converted to Islam and began to wear the hijab, a trend that raised some eyebrows. Several months later, the school administration asked my mother, a Pakistani American, to offer her perspective of Islam. As my mother described her…

  By Sadia Shepard Oct 27, 2010 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• Dan Perry Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  The Rabin We Remember — and Forget

  November 4 is his yahrzeit, counting by the secular calendar, as this secular Jew preferred: the 15th anniversary of the murder of Yitzhak Rabin. Those who remember his death that Saturday night, the 12th of Heshvan by the traditional calendar, can well recall the convulsive trauma that sent shockwaves around the globe. It was only…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 27, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  With the Elections, a New Reckoning

  At last, this bizarre election season draws to a close. How it will end, no one can reliably say. We read of widespread anger, we know something of the widespread dislocation that is the continuing consequence of the Great Recession, we watch with concern the widespread emergence of a cohort of candidates who seem peculiarly…

  By Leonard Fein Oct 27, 2010 | 3 min read
• Letters

  November 5, 2010

  Opposed to Happiness? It is one thing to oppose gay marriage, but it is quite another to oppose the happiness of gay people. Your article “N.J. Jewish Paper in Knots over Gay Nuptials,” in the October 15 issue, identified an incredibly disconcerting trend among those against marriage equality. Not only do some oppose gay marriage,…

  Oct 27, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Growing Gender Gap

  One year ago, the Forward surveyed the 75 largest Jewish communal organizations and discovered that only 11 of them — 14.3% — were led by women. And three of the 11 women in the very top spots were in interim positions. The dismal ratio surprised even veteran observers of American Jewish life, especially since three-quarters…

  Oct 27, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Report: Bibi OKs Swap of Gilad Schalit for Marwan Barghouti, Who Either Is or Isn’t Palestine’s Mandela

  One of the most important news stories of the week was also one of the least noticed. According to a Saudi newspaper quoted in the Jerusalem Post and in Ynet, Israel may be ready to free Marwan Barghouti as part of a prisoner swap for Gilad Schalit. Barghouti is the most popular leader on the…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 21, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Rights of Return and Recognition Cannot Be Swapped

  In a recent New York Times essay, published Oct. 14, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael B. Oren, argues forcefully on behalf of the call by Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. “Affirmation of Israel’s Jewishness,” he writes, “is the very foundation of…

  By Leonard Fein Oct 20, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Tea Party Test

  What are Jews to make of the Tea Party in this maddening election cycle? The raw anger directed at Democratic incumbency is understandable but highly disconcerting, since that anger promises to be far more destructive than constructive. The longing for a return to a constitutional nirvana is also understandable, but too often displays an appalling…

  Oct 20, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  And on the Seventh Day . . .

  In 2007, a study by the JCC Association revealed that two-thirds of the Jewish Community Centers in America were open at some time on the Sabbath. Since then, faced with pressure from members who would rather sweat on the elliptical trainers than sway with Shabbat prayers, the number of JCCs with Saturday hours has increased….

  Oct 20, 2010 | 2 min read