Opinion

• Opinion

  Why the Economy Is in the Toilet: Required Reading and Source Material

  My latest Good Fences column looks at the gloomy state of the economy and argues that it’s a mistake to blame either President Obama or the recent President Bush. What we’re experiencing actually is the collapse of a snake-oil economic cult theory that’s had us in its thrall for the past 30 years or so,…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Rabbi Searches Are Tough, but Are They Illegal?

  As a member of my synagogue’s rabbi search committee, I was deeply troubled to learn of the rules imposed by the Rabbinical Assembly, the Conservative movement’s governing rabbinical body, on rabbinic searches. The RA requires synagogues to enroll exclusively in its search process, filters the selection of candidates the congregations may interview, and prohibits candidates…

  By Barak D. Richman Sep 29, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Of Recognition, and Reality

  ‘Just say it!” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu recently exclaimed, calling on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish People. He was responding to a shrug from Abbas: “Israel can call itself the Zionist Jewish Empire.” With unfailing regularity, questions about recognition return to haunt and undermine Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. The…

  By Nir Eisikovits Sep 29, 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

  David Grossman, a Man Who Owns Israel

  In his remarkable recent New Yorker profile of the Israeli writer David Grossman, George Packer observes that the heroine of Grossman’s new novel “embraces the breadth of Israel’s tragedy, a country that can take nothing for granted, not even its own existence.” (The novel, “To the End of the Land,” is newly available in English.)…

  By Leonard Fein Sep 29, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  What J Street Can Learn From The Tea Party

  In the space of a few days, J Street became much lonelier, abandoned by many of its admirers in the press, as it fended off criticism that its funding sources are mysterious, nefarious and downright dangerous. But the lobbying group that calls itself “the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans” is not alone. After all,…

  By Noam Neusner Sep 29, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  It’s Still the Economy — but More So

  It’s pretty obvious by now what this election is about. It’s the economy. Folks are hurting, and those who aren’t hurting are scared. Too many people don’t have jobs; too many families are losing their homes. Too many kids can’t move out and start their lives. Too many parents saw their savings evaporate and don’t…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 29, 2010 | 4 min read
• Letters

  October 8, 2010

  Of Rabbinical Pay and Congregational Possibility The issue isn’t that “Synagogue Dues Don’t Raise More Money Than Church Gifts,” as your September 17 headline states, but rather that synagogues and churches both do not receive more community support or new members. Perhaps the church approach makes it easier for one with financial hardship to participate…

  Sep 29, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  George Soros’s Money

  J Street’s action regarding the funding it received from controversial billionaire George Soros is inexcusable. After years of claiming that he had not raised so much as a dime from Soros, J Street’s president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, had to ‘fess up — only after the Washington Times, not exactly a friendly newspaper, pointed out that the…

  Sep 29, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Modern-day Exodus

  For anyone involved in the Soviet Jewry movement — from the Russians trapped behind the Iron Curtain to the ordinary Jews who took up their cause — our Gal Beckerman’s triumphant new book, “When They Comes For Us, We’ll Be Gone,” is a stirring reminder of the power of peoplehood. “Peoplehood” has become a word…

  Sep 29, 2010 | < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Guest Editor: Sam Apple

  This fall, eight guest editors are helping to shape the Forward Forum by commissioning opinion pieces. This week, it’s Sam Apple, editor-in-chief and publisher of The Faster Times, an online “new type of newspaper for a new type of world.” He is also the author of two books, “Schlepping Through the Alps” and “American Parent.”…

  Sep 29, 2010 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Replace Hebrew School Books With Israeli B-Movies

  ‘Don’t be a shvitzer,” said the mother to her son as he left to join the IDF. This is but one of the wonderful bits of motherly advice in “Eskimo Limon,” the 1978 Israeli cult classic. “Eskimo Limon” is among the many hilarious Israeli movies from the ’60s and ’70s known as “Bourekas films”: tawdry,…

  By Mason Lerner Sep 29, 2010 | < 1 min read