Opinion

• Opinion

  Toward Day Schools for All Children

  My son Ezra asks all kinds of questions. Recently, he posed one that I found difficult to answer. “Why,” he wanted to know, “can’t I go to the same schools as my brothers?” Ezra’s siblings, who are 16 and 12, both attend Jewish day schools — and have done so since their preschool days. Ezra,…

  By Tom Fields-Meyer

  3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Catholics, Jews and Petri Dishes

  This month, Robert Edwards, a professor emeritus at the University of Cambridge, won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing (along with Dr. Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988), in vitro fertilization. The technique whereby eggs are removed from a woman, fertilized in a petri dish (hence the name “in vitro,” or “in a glass”),…

  By Elliot N. Dorff Oct 13, 2010 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Sometimes ‘Un-American’ Is Actually Ultra-American

  America’s proud tradition of tolerance has lately been put to the test. Islam is the current target, succeeding Catholicism and Judaism as the religion bearing the brunt of a less proud tradition of “Americanism.” Religious intolerance is not, of course, a peculiarly American phenomenon. What makes the American experience of intolerance distinctive is that it…

  By David N. Myers and Nomi M. Stolzenberg Oct 13, 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

  J Street’s Gifts To American Jewish Life

  J Street is caught between two opposite but equally potent reactions to revelations that it hid the involvement of arch-liberal philanthropist — and Israel critic — George Soros until “outed” by the conservative media. On the right, those who questioned the legitimacy of the liberal lobby’s policies and denied the pro-Israel bona fides of its…

  By Shai Franklin Oct 13, 2010 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Seeking the Power Of a Community Organizer

  Back during Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency, I frequently found myself arguing with friends who were supporting Hillary Clinton’s bid. “How,” they would ask, “do you expect this young and relatively inexperienced man to stand up to the walruses of the Congress? They will ride roughshod over him!” My answer, which seemed to me…

  By Leonard Fein Oct 13, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Blessing of Making Aliyah at 79

  Two years ago, at age 79, my mother became an olah hadashah, a new immigrant to Israel. We moved her to live in the small apartment above my sister Ruth’s home within the Old City in Jerusalem. In the years preceding her move to Israel she had descended into the fog of Alzheimer’s disease. Her…

  By David Raphael Oct 13, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Guest Editor: Michael Berenbaum

  This fall, eight guest editors are helping to shape the Forward Forum by commissioning opinion pieces. This week, it’s Michael Berenbaum, a professor of Jewish Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles and director of the Sigi Ziering Institute there, which studies the ethical and religious implications of the Holocaust. He was project…

  Oct 13, 2010 | < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Being Jewish Is Falling Out of Fashion

  Now that former Virginia Senator George Allen is planning his comeback, it’s time to take a long look at the meaning of Jewish identity in the 21st century. You remember Allen. He was the shoo-in Republican incumbent whose 2006 Senate re-election campaign collapsed in midsummer after he was filmed using what sounded like an obscure…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 13, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  An Unworthy Oath

  The Declaration of Independence approved on May 14, 1948, heralds the new nation of Israel as a “Jewish state” but never defines what that actually means. There’s no mention of religion, indeed no mention of God. (“Rock of Israel” is the compromise phrase.) But there is an explicit description of the new state’s civic values:…

  Oct 13, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  A Damaging ‘Cure’

  The recent spasm of violence and inflammatory rhetoric against gays and lesbians should concern all Americans. From the suicide of a hounded Rutgers University student, to the unforgivably brutal attacks on gay men in the Bronx, the headlines have been chilling. When a major party candidate for governor of the nation’s third-largest state can say…

  Oct 13, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Jew vs. Hidden Jew: Macaca-man George Allen Eyes Va. Run. Plus: 15 Jewish Dems in Senate?!

  The Wonkette blog reported Thursday that former Virginia Republican senator George Allen is gearing up for a rematch against Democrat Jim Webb to get his old seat back. Webb took away the seat in 2006 when Allen ran into a barrage of heat over his calling an Indian-American Democratic campaign worker “macaca.” According to Wonkette’s…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 8, 2010 | 3 min read