Opinion

• Opinion

  Slate Columnist Targets a ‘Ground Zero Synagogue,’ and Readers Reply

  William Saletan, a columnist at Slate.com, wrote a piece September 29 titled “The Ground Zero Synagogue: Should Jews build a synagogue near a site of Jewish terrorism?” He compares the debate over the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York to the building of a new synagogue in Kiryat Arba, just outside Hebron,…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  < 1 min read
• Opinion

  The Guatemala Revelations Are Not An Aberration

  Now and then, I write here about matters that have no obvious connection to the world of the Jews. And now and then, such columns provoke responses from readers who question why a newspaper devoted to matters Jewish would publish such writing. So this time I am going to try to make the connection explicit….

  By Leonard Fein Oct 6, 2010 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Partying or Peacemaking?

  The tenth anniversary just passed of the start of the Second, or Al-Aqsa, Intifada, which began not long after a breakdown in negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. It was the week of Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to the Temple Mount, the week Palestinians renewed their rioting against Israeli…

  By Todd Hasak-Lowy Oct 6, 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

  From Generation to Generation

  Last week, my father was looking for help. He’d recently teamed up with an Israeli nonprofit serving the mentally disabled, and wanted to recruit younger Jews to head up outreach in Canada. So naturally, he came to his 31-year-old son to help him bring young Jews aboard. I called the first friend I could think…

  By David Sax Oct 6, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A More Hospitable Sukkah City

  My almost-four-year-old daughter, Bess, knows New York’s Union Square primarily as the home of an awesome new playground. She also knows that every fall, we build a sukkah on her grandparents’ deck, invite friends over, and hang out in it whenever we can. So she can perhaps be forgiven for having assumed that the spectacular…

  By Lynn Harris Oct 6, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Allies Who Come With a Cost

  If one peeks behind many American Jewish leaders, one will often find pro-Israel Christian evangelicals. Their support for Israel is not only ideologically and politically motivated, but is also driven by a fundamentalist vision of the messianic age. Jews and Israel play an important role in their particular brand of Christianity, known as premillennial dispensationalism,…

  By David Shneer Oct 6, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  American Jews Know Their Religion

  Jews get a lot of bad press these days, so I’m happy to be able to offer some news that can only raise our esteem in the eyes of the American public — and more important, in our own eyes. As you may have heard, the prestigious Pew Research Center has just released a survey…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 6, 2010 | 3 min read
• Letters

  October 15, 2010

  Arranged Marriages In the October 8 op-ed “Rabbi Searches Are Tough, but Are They Illegal?” Barak D. Richman is so correct in his analysis of the potential illegalities caused by the limitations set by rabbinical bodies involved in “monitoring” congregational searches. Having also been a member of a rabbinical search committee, I, too, ran into…

  Oct 6, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Peace With Syria

  Syria’s maybe yes, maybe no attitude toward peace with Israel is enough to give even experienced Middle East diplomats a case of whiplash. One day Syrian President Bashar Assad is hosting U.S. special envoy George Mitchell in Damascus and saluting America’s efforts to broker a peace treaty. Barely two days later, Assad is embracing Iranian…

  Oct 6, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Chilling and Routine

  The self-immolation of former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, fired October 1 after delivering a lengthy anti-Semitic rant during a radio interview, offers a depressing reminder of how terribly routine the public maligning of Jews has become in 21st-century America. Perhaps it should not shock us that an educated individual in this day and age can…

  Oct 6, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  A Click and a Laugh — and a Death

  To the young people in our community: I’m your rabbi. As such, I am occasionally asked to share a few words or thoughts when bad things happen to good people. In this case, I want to write some words directly to you about Tyler Clementi’s tragic suicide last week. If you haven’t read about it,…

  By Andy Bachman Oct 1, 2010 | 3 min read