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
Got Freedom Wrong: Va. Gov. Apologizes for ‘Omitting’ Slavery in Confederate Proclamation
Well, Virginia Governor Robert “Bob” McDonnell abjectly apologized today for declaring April to be Confederate History Month and neglecting to mention slavery. He issued a five-paragraph statement admitting “a major omission” in a proclamation that was somehow “issued by this Office.” Ah, the passive voice: God’s gift to politicians caught with their pants down. “The…
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Opinion After Liberation, a Struggle To Understand
Sixty-five years ago, on April 11, 1945, armored units of the U.S. Third Army advancing east in Germany came upon an enormous fenced concentration camp. What American soldiers and other visitors saw in the days that followed defied their understanding. Buchenwald, located just north of the city of Weimar, was the first large Nazi concentration…
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Opinion Jewish Education Begins at Home
Passover is over this year, but I can’t stop thinking about the educational brilliance of the holiday. Passover is high-impact and low-cost. It’s family-based and grass-roots. And almost like magic, Passover needs no professional support: If all the rabbis, educators, synagogue presidents and federation fundraisers got lost wandering in the desert for 40 years, Jews…
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Opinion Setting the Standard for Kosher Industry
In January, a special task force of the Rabbinical Council of America released guidelines to encourage ethical conduct in the kosher food industry. In his recent Forward opinion article, Moses Pava, a known expert in the field of business ethics, enumerated some specific areas where he feels our initiative falls short, and provided thoughtful suggestions…
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Opinion What Actually Undermined the Kibbutz
This April marks the kickoff of a worldwide series of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the first kibbutz, Degania. Fine words have been spoken in Degania and Tel Aviv, and many more will be spoken elsewhere in the months ahead in praise of Israel’s kibbutzim, the iconic farming communes once considered…
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Opinion Abuse of Power
The Roman Catholic Church’s defensive response to the cascading charges of clergy sexual abuse has unleashed an astonishing spectacle: the world’s most powerful church draping itself in the mantle of victimhood. In the process, the church has managed to draw Jews into this story, with an offensive comparison made by the preacher of the papal…
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Opinion Faith-Based Fixes
After much deliberation, an advisory council has presented the White House with a blueprint for reforming the Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships, to ensure that the bright line separating the public’s money from support for private religious behavior is visible and honored. The recommendations suggest welcome improvements to a federal operation that too often…
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Letters April 16, 2010
A Fire’s Legacy I was very interested in your April 9 article on the commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (“Triangle Fire Chalking Links a Shul to Its Past”). I am a grandmother of almost 71 years of age, who grew up hearing stories about that fire from my grandmother, Rose Kaufman, who as…
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Opinion Let Freedom Ring: If It’s April in Va., It’s Confederate History Month
Virginia’s Republican Governor Robert F. “Bob” McDonnell, not the sort to be outdone by a Democratic White House Passover seder, has raised the bar on honoring the Jewish festival of freedom: He’s declared the entire month of April to be “Confederate History Month.” Of course I’m kidding. Actually, the governor’s Confederate heritage proclamation doesn’t have…
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Opinion Slaves We Were: How Brin’s Soviet Past Prompted Google’s China Exit
No field of Judaic knowledge is more widely scorned than the humble but ever-popular Jewish Geography — otherwise known as “Guess Who’s Jewish?” After all, we’re told by our betters, it doesn’t really make a difference, does it? Well, no, it doesn’t. Until it does. Case in point: Google’s recently announced departure from China. The…
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Opinion An Israeli General Explains Why Stopping Iran Requires a Real Settlement Freeze
Why should Israel have to freeze new Jewish housing construction in East Jerusalem, when it has already conceded so much and the Palestinians and their Arab patrons have given up so little? Well, for one thing, that Israel-gave-lots/Arabs-gave-little equation is not as cut and dry as it seems. But that’s a separate discussion for another…
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Fast Forward Jewish groups defend European media monitors banned for what State Dept. calls ‘censorship’
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Fast Forward British police drop case against Bob Vylan for ‘Death to the IDF’ chant, sparking outrage from Jewish groups
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Yiddish יהודה גור-אריה און שירי שפּירא געווינען רובינליכט־פּריז פֿאַר ליטעראַטורYehuda Gur-Arye and Shiri Shapira win Rubinlicht Prize for Literature
די רובינליכט־פֿונדאַציע טיילט צו יערלעכע פּרעמיעס פֿאַר ליטעראַרישער און קולטורעלער טעטיקייט אויף ייִדיש און לטובֿת ייִדיש.
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Yiddish אַ בריוועלע דער מאַמען (אַ דערציילונג) A letter to my mother (story)
בעת אַ ייִדישער סאָלדאַט ליגט אין אַ סאָוועטישן מיליטערישן שפּיטאָל פֿאַרמעסט זיך זײַן מאַמע קעגן דעם ייִדישן הויפּט־דאָקטער
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