Opinion

• Opinion

  Meet Jewish Senators 14, 15 — and 16? Plus: the House GOP’s Jewish Mormon

  A few weeks ago I wrote a column about the 13 Jews in the Senate, specifically the 11 Democrats and the two Independents, Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman, who guard the left and right flanken of the Democratic caucus. I wrote that these two white-haired gents from New England not only define the boundaries of…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Is Israel Athens or Sparta?

  Saul Bellow, in his “To Jerusalem and Back,” wrote approvingly of how Israel was so special a place because it sought simultaneously to be both Sparta and Athens — and largely succeeded at both. That was in 1976, 34 years ago. The other day, in Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s leading daily, Eitan Haber, who was Yitzhak…

  By Leonard Fein Jan 13, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  What the Women of the Wall Want

  One recent afternoon, while I was riding on a gender-segregated bus in Jerusalem, an Orthodox woman told me she didn’t mind sitting in back and out of sight, because it helped the men “keep cleanliness of the eyes.” Her reasoning was familiar to me; it followed a logic similar to the rationale behind a men-only…

  By Anat Hoffman Jan 13, 2010 | 3 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

  Egypt Ups the Ante in Gaza, But What Are the Stakes?

  The border separating the Gaza Strip from the Sinai Peninsula has in recent weeks become a Middle East hotspot as Egypt ratchets up its pressure on Hamas. Egypt is building an underground steel wall, reported to extend somewhere between 18 and 30 meters deep, to cut off the tunnels through which Gazans smuggle in everything…

  By Yossi Alpher Jan 13, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Lesson of Tu B’Shvat: A Judaism for Every Season

  Tu B’Shvat is once again on the horizon. The holiday marks the winding down of winter and the arrival of spring in the Land of Israel. The different seasons remind us that change is the way of the world. Change and adaptation also happen to be among the keys to the longevity and vitality of…

  By Michael M. Cohen Jan 13, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  What Harry Reid Said, and What He Meant

  If you’re like me, you probably just spent a weird stretch of January staring at your television, vainly trying to figure out what our national leaders could be talking about this time. Political gibberish is nothing new, but lately the nonsense has reached new heights. Here’s what I got: It had something to do with…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 13, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Minority Rule

  In a nation that clings to the ideals of majority rule and fair play, the filibuster can seem like a poke in the political eye. Allowing a single lawmaker to talk on and on, bringing the nation’s business to a halt, may have seemed like a good idea when Mr. Smith went to Washington. But…

  Jan 13, 2010 | 3 min read
• Letters

  January 22, 2010

  Where Health Care Reform Went Wrong You should be ashamed to endorse the so-called “right to health care” that emerges from the Senate’s December 24 vote (“A Right to Health Care,” January 8). Beginning with the laudable aim to establish affordable universal health care for all citizens, the Democratic majority has instead settled for a…

  Jan 13, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Stifling Our Artists

  The fourth annual Schmooze conference took place at the hip City Winery in Lower Manhattan on January 11 and 12, bringing together Jewish artists and presenters to debate, discuss and, well, schmooze. There was talk of a “sea change” this year, and not just because of the financial meltdown or the growing popularity of Fox…

  By Jane Eisner Jan 13, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  U.S.-Israel Ties: Pressure Doing Business With You

  Judging by appearances, relations between Obama’s Washington and Netanyahu’s Jerusalem are getting a mite testy as pressure grows for movement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, or what’s left of it. The administration wants the sides to agree on a formula to allow reopening negotiations. Israel has partially frozen settlement construction, but with some big exceptions…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 10, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Vatican and the Jews: The Pius Spat, The Pious Spit

  A new blog post by John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter, routinely described as the most authoritative English-language journalist covering the Vatican, reports on a seldom-discussed irritant in Catholic-Jewish relations: Haredi youth spitting on robed Catholic clerics on the streets of Jerusalem. Here’s an excerpt: Jews move to halt spitting at Christians in Jerusalem…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 8, 2010 | 3 min read