In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
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Opinion
Challenging Each Other, In Good Faith
I was born and raised in New York City, yet when I arrive at Ben Gurion airport I don’t feel protected by my American passport. My heart pounds with anxiety and I feel literally sick to my stomach at the possibility of being interrogated and humiliated. The reason: My father was Palestinian. My Jewish colleagues…
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Opinion Moving Beyond Stereotypes
At the beginning, I thought, “We will go and show those Jewish women who is the aggrieved and who is the criminal here.” I anticipated a head-to-head confrontation when we talked about Israel’s injustices and human rights violations. I thought the Jews in the Dialogue would try to convince us that Israel has the right…
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Opinion Jewish Voters, Obama and the Great Elephant Hunt
Looking at the midterm election results, even a casual observer can find any number of obvious, unavoidable lessons about the state of our nation. For all the Republican chest-thumping and Democratic breast-beating in the election’s aftermath, it’s hard to miss the core truths that were exposed: the intensity of the economic distress, the depth of…
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Letters November 19, 2010
A Long Road Toward ‘Leading in a Jewish Way’ How sad that the Forward did not include a category for Jewish education in your list of leaders (“The Forward 50,” November 5 issue). So it goes in North America these days, as we continue to undervalue the very component of Jewish life that is essential…
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Opinion Whose Jerusalem?
View our interactive maps of West Bank settlement blocks, and their proximity to Palestinian neighborhoods and the security barrier here. Jerusalem is not a settlement, the Prime Minister of Israel stated unequivocally, and what Jew could disagree? Jerusalem is the city of gold, the beating heart of the Jewish people, the place where it all…
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Opinion Critical Thinking Isn’t ‘Delegitimizing’
One may be forgiven for supposing — or, at least, hoping — that the tradition of infantilizing the American Jewish community would by now be the exception rather than the rule. If nothing else, at least the explosive rise of J Street might have tilted the balance of communal conversation in the direction of sober…
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Opinion The Value of Brokenness
“It did not take long before the first heavy grey stones came tumbling down, and the children of the village amused themselves as they flung stones into the many coloured windows. When the first rays of a cold and pale November sun penetrated the heavy dark clouds, the little synagogue was but a heap of…
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Opinion Rite of Returns: Jews Who Ran for Congress — Winners & Losers
O.K., so how bad was it for the Jews? Not as bad as for Democrats in general. A few Jewish lawmakers were defeated, a smaller number of new ones were elected. A quick look at who’s in and who’s out offers some intriguing insights about the current state of American Jewry. As Yogi Berra once…
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Letters November 12, 2010
Violence is an Obstacle to Modeling Jewish Behavior In Reza Aslan’s interesting op-ed piece, “Muslims: Make Like the Jews,” in the Nov. 5 issue, he correctly argues that education about Islam, alone — that is, acquiring facts about the religion — is insufficient to alter the negative perception most Americans appear to have about Muslims….
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Opinion Be Nice
Ironically, an election season characterized by ugly name-calling, physical confrontation — and so many negative ads that by the end of the campaign they became an indistinguishable, disgusting blur — has also seen notable attempts to promote civility. It’s hard to remember now, but Jewish Republicans and Democrats signed a civility pledge back in May,…
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Opinion The Longer View
The day after the Republican electoral sweep, President Obama acknowledged that he took a “shellacking.” He agreed to consider modest changes to his health care reform and to reconsider maintaining tax cuts for some wealthy Americans. He pledged, again, to find bipartisan solutions to the crushing problems facing the nation, especially the economy, where he…
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Culture ‘My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish’ — the Knicks chant capturing New York’s soul
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Opinion Cultural boycotts of Israel just reached peak absurdity
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Sports Memes, mashiach and ‘Torah-cyclopedias’ put a Jewish twist on the Knicks’ title chase
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Opinion It’s time for Jews who love Israel to give up on Zionism
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