In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
Joint Ban by 300 Israeli Rabbis on Renting Homes to Arabs Draws Several Press Releases in Protest
The conflict between the Jewish state and the democratic state is growing apace. The rabbis’ letter forbidding Jews to rent homes to non-Jews (meaning, mostly, Arabs) is attracting a steadily growing list of signatories. As of Thursday night it had about 300 rabbis signed on, according to a report on Israel National News, the English…
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Letters Columbia’s Hillel Is Wrong: Lecturing Can Lead To Learning, Just Ask Any Professor
I find totally unacceptable the justification by the Columbia Hillel director for forcing the Hillel-affiliated student group to withdraw its sponsorship of a campus lecture by John Ging, director of UNRWA’s Gaza operations (“Columbia Student Group Drops Sponsorship of Gaza Talk Under Pressure,” November 26). “A format that is simply standing up at a podium,…
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Opinion No Link Between Stopping Iran and Pushing Peace? Rabin Knew Better
Most of the secrets that have leaked out so far from WikiLeaks have proved to be trivial, like Muammar Gadhafi’s blond nurse, or screamingly obvious, like Hamid Karzai’s sleaze. That makes the really big news stand out in bold relief. Take the matter of Arab leaders calling for America to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. The…
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Letters We Have Old Songs, Too
In Lenore Skenazy’s November 26 column, “Why I Go Caroling,” she marvels that the “caroling oeuvre… is so old,” and asks, “When else do people spontaneously sing songs ripped from the Middle Ages?” I’d encourage her to learn some of the many beautiful Shabbat table songs, known as zemirot or piyyutim. While the lyrics are…
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Letters Don’t Forget the ‘Braidel’
I loved your dreidel article (“‘Oh Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel,’” November 26). However, you did not mention my favorite dreidel. For some Jews, the Braille Dreidel or “Braidel” is the only Hanukkah joy they can actually “see.” Jews who are blind can easily play dreidel because the letters are printed in Braille! Rabbi Lynne Landsberg Senior…
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Opinion Don’t Treat Conservatives Like Apostates
For several months, I have been an active participant in the community-wide campaign of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs to restore civility to Jewish public life. As a result, I am routinely asked: What does civility really require of us, besides hushed voices and respectful listening in public meetings and discussions? Is this just…
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Letters Why Didn’t the Palestinians Get Their State Before 1967?
In your November 19 editorial “Whose Jerusalem?” you accurately point out that, from 1948 to 1967, much of East Jerusalem was part of the “West Bank.” However, the editorial draws the wrong conclusion from this important piece of history. In 1947, U.N. Resolution 181 created not only a Jewish state out of the British Mandate,…
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Letters Foxman Knows That Being a Leader Means Defending Human Rights and Israel
Abraham Foxman is one of the best known and one of the most formidable of Jewish communal leaders (“As Some Retire From ADL, Will Abe Be Next?” November 5). A Holocaust survivor, Abe manifests a visceral understanding of the requirements of Jewish leadership. He never wavers in his commitment to the welfare of the Jewish…
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Opinion A Boycott Spreads
You know the delegitimization campaign targeting Israel has reached new heights of absurdity when the rallying cry against the Jewish state is now being waged with the help of the chickpea. What a low blow — Israel’s enemies are hitting where it really hurts: hummus. Hummus, that pasty spread without which pita has no purpose,…
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Letters Why Disparage a Policy That Protects Jewish Students?
It’s troubling that a professor of Jewish history at the University of California, Davis, would disparage the federal government’s new policy affording Jewish students the same civil rights protections that have been guaranteed to other minority groups for close to 50 years (“Federal Civil Rights Policy Expanded To Protect Jewish College Students,” November 12). David…
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Opinion Opening Our Tent
Intermarriage has taken center stage this past year. The marriage of Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvkinsky spurred a national conversation about intermarriage. The Rotem bill roiled Israel-Diaspora relations, sparking considerable debate over conversion policy and the question of how to incorporate the hundreds of thousands of Israelis from intermarried families into the Jewish people. Even…
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