Opinion

• Opinion

  An Outrage in Arizona

  It is rare, indeed, to find ourselves nodding in agreement with a pronouncement from a politician named Bush. But when Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, became the first prominent national Republican to speak out against Arizona’s new, draconian immigration law, he reminded us that there was a time not long ago when some of…

  < 1 min read
• Opinion

  For Men Only

  We are told that the carefully worded, hard-to-decipher resolution on the role of women in Orthodox Judaism was approved by the Rabbinical Council of America on April 27 without a single murmur of opposition. That’s what we are told, anyhow. You have to take it on faith, because the RCA decided to bar the public,…

  Apr 28, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Zogby Poll: 70% of Americans Oppose ‘South Park’ Censorship

  Pollster John Zogby of Zogby International reports on a new survey showing that 70% of Americans disagree with the Comedy Central Network decision to censor out references to Muhammad on “South Park.” Unlike many other issues, opposition to Comedy Central’s decision is a bipartisan one. Clear majorities of those affiliated with both parties as well…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 28, 2010 | < 1 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

  Why Obama Disappoints His Allies: Too Little Time, Too Many Fires To Put Out

  Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt offers a striking theory on how President Obama chose his agenda for his first two years, and why so many of his allies are so disappointed in the results. Basically, there was just too much basic repair work to be done, given the mess he inherited from the…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 27, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Media Watch: A Rashomon Tale of E. Jerusalem Violence and Israel’s Police

  If you want to find out the facts behind the violence on Sunday in Silwan village in East Jerusalem during a march by far-right Israeli activists, you have to do a lot of Web surfing. Everybody offers bits of the story, but only the bits they want to share. Everybody’s got an angle. The short…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 26, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Media Watch II: Looking at Jewish Women as the World Looks at Them

  Surfing the Web for various takes on the violence in Silwan on Sunday, I looked at the coverage by the Chinese news service Xinhua, which is usually a good place for odd angles. There was nothing new about Jerusalem, but an interesting link appeared alongside the article, directing me to what it called the world’s…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 26, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Alarm Bells on the Ascendancy of the Israeli Far Right

  The N.Y. Times-owned International Herald Tribune has a very disturbing, must-read op-ed piece today by Yossi Alpher, “Who Rules Israel?”. If you’ve been feeling out of sorts lately about what feels like a mounting assault on beleaguered Israeli peace and human rights advocates by an ever-more influential far right, Alpher makes the case, in a…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 22, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Maariv Report: Rabbi Yosef of Shas Endorses Jerusalem Construction Freeze

  Maariv’s ace reporter Ben Kaspit reports in an article (Hebrew only) posted on the paper’s Web site Thursday morning that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual mentor of the Shas party, has endorsed a freeze on new Israeli construction in East Jerusalem in order to maintain good relations with the United States. According to Kaspit, Yosef…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 22, 2010 | < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Thoroughly Modern Theodor

  It is easy to mock Theodor Herzl and his vision of orchestras playing Viennese waltzes aboard ocean liners carrying Jewish immigrants to the Promised Land. After all, the father of modern Zionism failed to anticipate the rise of Arab nationalism, and the model Jewish state that he imagined in his utopian novel “Altneuland” (Old-New Land)…

  By Amnon Rubinstein Apr 21, 2010 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  When the Slumlords Are Us

  Thirty human households, and countless rodents and cockroaches: Those were the census figures in the apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side where I lived for about five years. When a neighbor living in a rent-stabilized unit complained that the gaping holes in her walls allowed rats to run free through her apartment, the landlord…

  By Jill Jacobs Apr 21, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Code Red: Threats Abroad, Threats at Home

  Finally, a diagnosis: My malady is Attention Overload Disorder. I try, honestly I do, to keep up with the news. But before I can absorb the Icelandic volcano eruption, I have to absorb the Goldman Sachs corruption. And all the while, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Party and the Birthers, and always…

  By Leonard Fein Apr 21, 2010 | 3 min read