Opinion

• Opinion

  How To Fix a Broken System

  The controversial conversion bill now before Israel’s Knesset set out to make conversion easier for those who sought it. But instead of advancing this important objective, the legislation spurred a crisis in the sensitive relationship between North American Jewry and Israel. Israel’s conversion process is badly in need of reform. More than 300,000 immigrants from…

  By Seth Farber

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Our Mainline Protestant Friends

  It’s a disturbing pattern: Year after year, denomination after denomination, mainline Protestant churches put forward resolutions, reports and policies that are biased against Israel. Jews, in turn, are exasperated by the calls for divestment, statements dismissive of Israel’s security needs and theologically charged denunciations of Israeli policies. Jews and other supporters of Israel, however, should…

  By Adam Gregerman Jul 21, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Preserving Jewish Unity

  In recent days an intense but familiar battle has challenged the Jewish community in Israel and the Diaspora. It’s not about the threat of a nuclear Iran, tensions in U.S.-Israel relations or the plight of Gilad Shalit. This time the conflict lies within — timely given the period of Tisha B’Av and our focus on…

  By Jerry Silverman Jul 21, 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 There’s a shocking new report on civilian deaths in Gaza. If only it were accurate.

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s new gift to the far right could help end the Gaza war

  

• Emily Tamkin Entering motherhood — and an obsession with the works of an Italian Jewish literary hero

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  The Many Lives of David Twersky

  When I was growing up, we used to spend the Fourth of July picnicking near a lake with another family, and after dark the fathers would put on a fireworks show. I remember it as a dizzying display of colors and patterns high above the lake — rockets, pinwheels and Roman candles soaring upwards, each…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 21, 2010 | 5 min read
• Letters

  July 30, 2010

  How Big of a Tent? In his July 9 article “Peoplehood vs. Israel,” Jay Michaelson presents us with a stark choice. He states: “if we want a community that stands for something — for example, support for the existence of the State of Israel — then we are by definition excluding those who do not…

  Jul 21, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Jewish Legitimacy

  Given the hysteria and defiance that characterized much of the American Jewish response to the provocative “conversion bill” now stalled somewhere in the Knesset, what we’re about to say may sound counter-intuitive. But bear with us. For it is possible that the high-stakes drama caused by an Israeli lawmaker’s ham-handed attempt to liberalize the conversion…

  Jul 21, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The ‘Stained Glass Ceiling’ and The Sisterhood 50

  The “stained glass ceiling” is such a common condition that it has its own Wikipedia page. It refers to the barriers placed before women who strive to become leaders in their churches — barriers that are both overt (no Catholic women need apply) and more subtle. The metaphor doesn’t quite fit the Jewish world, but…

  Jul 21, 2010 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Israel Beyond Emergencies

  An ardently pro-Israel Catholic friend regularly takes out his frustration on me. He demands to know why American Jews aren’t outraged at President Obama for his chilliness to the Jewish state, why, when it comes to the existential dangers facing Israel, most Jews don’t seem to “get it.” A partial explanation may lie, surprisingly, in…

  By David Klinghoffer Jul 15, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Gaddafi Jr.: We Docked in Egypt After Israel OK’d Gaza Reconstruction Aid

  Ynet, the Yediot website, reports that the Libyan blockade-buster ship headed for Gaza this week agreed to divert to El-Arish in Egypt following a secret Israeli-Libyan deal. Under the deal, mediated by Egypt, Israel agreed to let Libya send $50 million worth of construction material into Gaza, via the U.N., for post-Cast Lead rehabilitation. The…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 15, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  What the Congress Gave American Jews

  When the American Jewish Congress closes its doors — an outcome that increasingly appears imminent — there won’t be many mourners saying Kaddish. Instead, the prevailing communal sentiment will probably be: “We have too many agencies; one less will not matter!” The serious financial problems that had plagued the AJCongress over recent decades became a…

  By Jerome A. Chanes Jul 14, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Rav Kook’s Love-Hate Relationship

  Tisha B’Av comes early this year, which seems grimly appropriate given the deep sense of foreboding in Israel, and in Jerusalem, the hatreds from without and within pendant in the air. It is commonplace around Tisha B’Av to recall the famous talmudic dictum that the Temple was destroyed because of sinat chinam, baseless or freely…

  By Yehudah Mirsky Jul 14, 2010 | 4 min read