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
Time for Israeli Ingenuity
In their best-selling book “Start-Up Nation,” Dan Senor and Saul Singer detail how Israel’s “economic miracle” has been fueled by an informal, creative and entrepreneurial business culture backed by government policies focused on innovation. How is it, then, that a nation with the economic brainpower to lead the world in per-capita start-ups cannot apply that…
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Opinion We Are One, Genetically
The Jewish communal world is obsessed with the notion of peoplehood and how to define it, promote it, strengthen it — especially how to encourage younger, unaffiliated Jews to feel part of a sprawling but interconnected global family. A new scientific study may offer some help. Turns out that Jews the world over share many…
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Opinion Another Fine Mess, Bibi
This is from Amnon Abramovitch, a popular commentator on Israel’s Channel 2 Television News, writing for the Yediot Ahronot opinion page (Hebrew, print only), Tuesday, June 1. Wherever he touches military and security affairs, Benjamin Netanyahu has bad luck. An evil eye, a sort of un-naches. That’s how it’s been since way back when, and…
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Opinion Fiasco at Sea, Failed Strategy
Three very negative strategic trends came together to produce a fiasco-at-sea when Israel intercepted the civilian flotilla that was seeking to breach the blockade of Gaza. First, Turkey’s Islamist leadership saw an opportunity to champion the Palestinian cause and Hamas in particular through sponsorship of the six-ship flotilla by IHH, a humanitarian organization that functions…
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Opinion The Flotilla Was a Killer
Israel got suckered, the same way it gets suckered over and over. It walks into situations where it will inevitably come out looking like a bully, arouses worldwide anger and then gets indignant when it’s condemned. It’s like watching Charlie Brown charge the football, knowing that Lucy will snatch it away as she always does….
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Opinion The Way We Aid
For more than half a century, North America’s Jewish federation system has divided its overseas allocations between the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The Jewish Agency has been dedicated to building up Israel and encouraging aliyah, while the Joint has focused on aiding Jewish communities in need around the…
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Opinion Carrots, Sticks and Iranian Uranium
Diplomacy as a rule occurs out of sight. Messages are delivered in hushed conversations in U.N. corridors, through back channels or in tightly choreographed discussions on the sidelines of summit meetings. The language is subtle and the tone well-mannered, but the message is usually clear. Recently, however, in the span of only two days, the…
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Opinion Goodbye Wissenschaft, Hello Relevance
The Jewish Theological Seminary’s chancellor, Arnold Eisen, recently unveiled a bold new strategic plan aimed at transforming the school’s curriculum, redefining its purpose and setting forth its future direction. The plan called to mind a story that my late father used to tell about a modest change that he proposed to the JTS curriculum as…
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Opinion What To Do With Bar Mitzvah Crashers
We evidently need a new system. I am referring to the traditional method for deciding who shall be invited to attend a bar or bat mitzvah. In olden times, when nature and nurture combined to indicate the ripeness of the child, the invitation list almost composed itself: family, friends, perhaps colleagues. But, as the saying…
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Opinion Faith at Ground Zero
It takes faith to do this. We may as well be honest and acknowledge that it takes a bucket-load of faith in the human capacity for tolerance and forgiveness to do what is surely the right thing to do, but the difficult thing to do, and allow construction of a towering mosque and Islamic community…
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Opinion A Bitter Tea Party
Americans have railed against the power of the federal government even before we had one, so the recent, ridiculous remarks by GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul about the Civil Rights Act unfortunately find an echo in history. Worse has been said, and done. Besides, every generation needs to be reminded to guard against government tyranny,…
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