Opinion

• Opinion

  Getting Serious About Iran

  In 1967, I was a contented sophomore at Brandeis University. Then, in May of that year, I watched in horror and dismay as Arab nations massed troops on Israel’s border and the nations of the West, including the United States, responded with studied indifference. I was absolutely certain that Israel faced imminent destruction. As Israel…

  By Eric Yoffie

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Look Who’s Raising Jews

  What do you call people who study Jewish traditions, regularly attend synagogue and work hard to raise Jewish children? Often we simply call such people “non-Jews.” According to the 2000–01 National Jewish Population Survey, 24% of people living in Jewish households are not Jews, the result of an intermarriage rate that was estimated to have…

  By Jennifer Thompson May 19, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A Tale of Two Jerusalems

  This Jerusalem Day, Israel’s leaders once again trotted out the same old slogans. “We will never again allow Jerusalem to become a separated, bleak and divided city,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, speaking at the national ceremony at Ammunition Hill. Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, added: “On this day, from this platform, we shall say loud…

  By Ronit Sela May 19, 2010 | 2 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

  In Britain, Jew vs. Jew, Miliband vs. Miliband

  In light of Britain’s July 2011 phone-hacking scandal, the public profile of Ed Miliband, who has called for the break up of News Corp, is on the rise. In May 2010, our J.J. Goldberg wrote this piece about Miliband, now the leader of the Labor party, and his politician brother, David. Perfectly timed to the…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 19, 2010 | 4 min read
• Letters

  May 28, 2010

  Will Rubashkin’s Punishment Fit the Crime? Your May 14 article “Campaign for Rubashkin Paints Another View of Kosher Meat Scandal” paints an incomplete picture of the group of people who are protesting federal prosecutors’ efforts to have Sholom Rubashkin sentenced, initially, to a life sentence and now to a 25-year sentence. It is not only…

  May 19, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Kagan, Kaplan and the Stare Decisis Conundrum

  Jeremiah Riemer writes to suggest that if Elena Kagan is indeed set to become the first Reconstructionist on the Supreme Court since the Civil War, as I joked in a May 10 blog post (playing off her late parents’ reported membership in a Reconstructionist congregation), then it’s time to take a fresh look at the…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 18, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  The Moral Crisis of American Zionism, Seen Through the Eyes of a Recovering New Republic-nik

  If you haven’t yet read Peter Beinart’s new piece in the New York Review of Books, “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” check it out here. It’s must reading. It’s a long argument, but here’s the heart of it: Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world,…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 18, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  With All Due Respect, He Should Have Picked a Protestant

  I’m thinking more and more that the president should have nominated a Protestant to the court. Think about it: Liberals have been arguing for decades in favor of diversity as a fundamental value in schooling, hiring and choosing governing/decision-making bodies. How can a Democratic president take the step that renders the Supreme Court devoid of…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 14, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Let Us Say, ‘Eureka!’

  From the Hampton University website: “The year was 1861. The American Civil War had shortly begun and the Union Army held control of Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. In May of that year, Union Major General Benjamin Butler decreed that any escaping slaves reaching Union lines would be…

  By Leonard Fein May 12, 2010 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  What the Baal Shem Tov Left Behind

  The yahrzeit of a Hasidic rebbe — far from being a day devoted to mourning the dead — is a bona fide yontef. It is marked by feasting, singing and dancing, testifying to the supreme confidence of Hasidim that their departed leader is still actively interceding on their behalf in the heavens. This month, on…

  By Allan Nadler May 12, 2010 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Conversion Lessons in Agriculture and Compassion

  The Jewish community has been welcoming and celebrating converts to Judaism since at least the time of Ruth, the paradigmatic convert whose story is celebrated on Shavuot. However, in recent years, controversies over conversion have taken on greater urgency, in large part because they are proxy fights for the definition of Judaism. Many conversion fights…

  By Brent Chaim Spodek May 12, 2010 | 3 min read