Opinion

• Opinion

  Gay Marriage and ‘Religious Freedom’

  The historic decision striking down California’s Proposition 8 affirms what many of us in the movement for GLBT equality have known all along: The fight over gay marriage is really a battle about whether we want religion to dictate our laws. Take away all the pseudo-sociology, the unsubstantiated (and demonstrably false) claims about how children…

  By Jay Michaelson

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Trotsky’s Jewish Question

  Seventy years ago, on August 20, 1940, Leon Trotsky — the arch-heretic of international communism and symbol (for his admirers) of Bolshevik revolutionary purity — was struck down in Mexico City by a Stalinist assassin’s axe. Trotsky, an architect of the 1917 October Revolution and, subsequently, the creator of the Red Army, which he led…

  By Robert S. Wistrich Aug 18, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  One Solution: Two States

  The steady march of settlements, the rightward shift in Israeli politics, the growing sense that a conflict-ending peace agreement is impossible — all these things are feeding some pundits’ impulse to declare the death of the two-state solution as a means of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But what are the alternatives? Some support a “one-state”…

  By Lara Friedman Aug 18, 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 A US official just made history in the West Bank — did he imperil prospects for peace?

  

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

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  A Moderate Found Lacking

  The heated debate over the proposed $100 million Islamic cultural center and mosque only two blocks from Ground Zero has thus far focused mostly on the appropriateness of building a mosque at that particular location. Although grappling with the philosophical and political dimensions of the location’s suitability is important, an even more critical question is…

  By Matan Shamir Aug 18, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Statement of Muslim American Imams and Community Leaders on Holocaust Denial

  Last week, the Forward reported on a recent trip by eight prominent American Muslim religious and community leaders to Nazi concentration camps in Germany and Poland (“At the Death Camps, Muslim Leaders Grapple With Jews’ Pain,” August 20). The trip was led by Rabbi Jack Bemporad of the Center for Interreligious Understanding and Marshall Breger…

  Aug 18, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Struggle Over Israel’s Military Strategy

  It’s probably the most riveting front-page drama in Israel today. Its outcome will decisively affect regional developments, including the Iranian nuclear crisis, for years. And you probably haven’t heard a word about it, alert reader though you are. The world press has barely mentioned it. I refer to the race to succeed Israel’s military chief…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 18, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A Threat From Within

  Part one of a series on poverty in Israel; to read part two, click here. In May, when Israel was invited to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a 31-nation club of the world’s most elite, developed economies, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz called it “a badge of honor.” Indeed, it is. Acceptance means…

  Aug 18, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  On Tony Judt: Our Readers Erupt — Er, React

  My last two “Good Fences” columns on Oliver Stone and Tony Judt kicked up an unusual volume of reader feedback, most of it hostile, much of it downright vitriolic and occasionally incoherent. And some of it was instructive and chastening. I usually prefer to keep my peace and let the dialogue play itself out, but…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 17, 2010 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Will Israel Attack Iran? Should It? Does Goldberg (the Other One) Give Both Sides Their Due?

  The Atlantic has posted a compelling article by Jeffrey Goldberg, who for the record is not me, on the prospects of an Israeli military strike against Iran. It’s based on extensive on- and off-the-record interviews with Israeli political and military leaders, Obama administration officials and Arab diplomats. He puts the likelihood of an Israeli strike…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 12, 2010 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  The Missing ‘Mazel Tov’

  The future of liberal Judaism depends on engaging interfaith families in Jewish life. Because we live in a celebrity-driven culture, the wedding of Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky offers a rare opportunity to influence more interfaith couples to make Jewish choices. Yet instead our Jewish leaders’ responses seem almost calculated to push those couples away….

  By Edmund Case Aug 11, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  When Shuls Were Banned in America

  When New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stood on Governors Island, in sight of the Statue of Liberty, and forcefully defended the right of Muslims to build a community center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, he expressly made a point of distancing himself from an earlier leader of the city: Peter Stuyvesant, who understood…

  By Jonathan D. Sarna Aug 11, 2010 | 3 min read