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
To Know a Muslim
Amid the discouraging news about public opinion around the planned construction of an Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan, there is one positive, underlying theme. It’s a deeply American theme, and in these suspicious, often depressing times, it’s essential to remember: Education breeds respect. Familiarity begets trust. The theme was found in the latest New…
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Opinion Let Us Atone
For the sin of Refusing To Sacrifice By Sharon Brous Contrast President John F. Kennedy’s bold “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” with today’s prevailing ethos of “feed me, serve me, don’t tell me what to do.” After this year’s environmental disaster in…
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Opinion An Ode to ‘Feh’
An expletive beyond compare, And one which every Jew can share! We write of feh, a word robust That’s used to register disgust. It springs from distant tribal source Of salty verbal intercourse. (Quite similarly, we employ The noted lamentation, oy.) Ubiquitous, the feh is used Where’er the Yiddish tongue is schmoozed. It soars to…
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Opinion Jewish Studies Rises, but We Pay the Price
The flourishing of Jewish studies at secular American universities in recent decades is a remarkable and profoundly important development. As students return to their campuses, it is not only those who attend Yeshiva University, Hebrew Union College or the Jewish Theological Seminary who will have access to high-level teaching and scholarship on Jewish topics. Secular…
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Opinion Israel Needs a Separation Wall
We have long since become accustomed to the Israeli Haredi community’s version of roadside bombs. They come, they go, damaging Judaism’s dignity with their excesses, but inflicting no human casualties. Last week’s over-the-top outburst by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, head of the Shas party’s Council of Torah Sages, was the sort of derangement we have come…
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Opinion A Worrisome Birthday for a Warming World
If I seem a little anxious lately, it’s because I’m having trouble picking out a birthday gift. I get caught every year around this time, first thinking about the upcoming New Year observance and the perennial thrill of hearing the call of the shofar, and then remembering the words that follow it: Hayom harat olam…
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Opinion Peretz-Wieseltier Smackdown! The Islam Menace! (Also, Yours Truly on NPR, Sunday)
(My NPR details: ‘On the Media,’ Sunday Sept. 5. In NYC, 10 am on 93.9 FM, 3 pm on 820 AM. Elsewhere, check the show’s schedule.) (Update: here is the broadcast, streaming audio plus transcript.) On to tachlis: The New Republic has a particularly seething confrontation on its website between the editor in chief, Martin…
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Opinion When Would Israel Attack Iran?
The prospect of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear infrastructure is very much in the news. Jeffrey Goldberg recently published a controversial article in The Atlantic citing what he called a “consensus” view among current and former Israeli decision makers that “there is a better than 50 percent chance that Israel will launch a strike by next…
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Opinion Abraham and Sons
It’s no secret that services on the first day of Rosh Hashanah are much better attended than those on its second day. But what the second day of the Jewish New Year lacks in attendance, it makes up for in narrative drama. In synagogue that day, we read Genesis 22, which recounts the binding of…
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Opinion Conversion Crisis or Marriage Problem? — An Exchange
This summer, Israel-Diaspora relations were roiled by a fierce debate over the Rotem bill. The bill’s stated aim was to ease the path to conversion for the hundreds of thousands of Israelis from the former Soviet Union who are not considered Jewish under Halacha and, as a result, cannot legally marry in Israel, where religious…
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Opinion Boycotted, Bothered and Bewildered
Israel entered disturbing, unfamiliar territory this summer in its struggles against boycotts and economic warfare. After nearly a decade of noisy but largely toothless campaigns to isolate it on the international stage, Israel now faces a concerted effort by Palestinians under its rule to isolate the Israeli settlers living among them in the West Bank….
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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
In Case You Missed It
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Culture Whether it’s viral dot cakes or Love Shack Fancy skirts, Chloe Hechter wants you to know that “Jewish-American Princesses did it first”
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Opinion The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel
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Film & TV Would Judaism have an issue with ‘Disclosure Day?’
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Fast Forward 14 arrested during rival protests outside Israeli real estate event held at London synagogue