Opinion

• Opinion

  An American Yom Tov

  Thanksgiving has always been my favorite national holiday. In fact, although I am a religious Jew (or rather, because I am a religious Jew), it rivals my favorite Jewish holidays for my affection. It does so because it is quintessentially American, it is deeply religious without being denominational and it is based entirely on one…

  By Dennis Prager

  3 min read
• Opinion

  The Wages of Liberal Guilt

  ‘Should” may be the most dangerous word in modern politics, because on its wings do some bad ideas fly. Take the case of the minimum wage. Slightly more than two years ago, the Democratic-led Congress voted for an increase in the minimum wage, from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour over three stages. This…

  By Noam Neusner Nov 18, 2009 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Trying Terrorists

  If Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his cronies wanted to undermine America’s democratic faith, they couldn’t have found a better plan than to get themselves arrested and force us to figure out what to do with them. Where to put these guys is one of those questions, like the ancient riddle of the Sphinx, that has…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 18, 2009 | 4 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 is not deliberately killing journalists in Gaza. But it does bear responsibility for their deaths

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s attack on George Soros is ludicrous. It also endangers Jews (and everyone else)

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  A Time for Counting

  The end of a decade provides a good opportunity for taking stock. The American Jewish community has had a tradition of conducting a decennial population survey that looks at its aggregate numbers but also beyond to paint a detailed portrait of Jewish demography and identity. Unfortunately, with the first decade of the 21st century nearing…

  By Uzi Rebhun Nov 18, 2009 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Freezing Progess, Not Settlements

  What are we to make of America’s insistence — now softened at the edges, if not the core — on an end to Israel’s building of settlements in the West Bank and Israel’s determined refusal to comply? A red herring — a diversion. The Palestinians say it is everything, the Americans say it is something,…

  By Leonard Fein Nov 18, 2009 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Bibi Gets a Rude Lesson in France’s ‘Jewish Problem’

  The endemic antisemitism of the French has been a staple of modern Jewish public discourse and sober analysis for nearly as long as there has been modern Jewish public discourse. It’s commonly viewed as a continuum stretching back at least to the Dreyfus Affair, more than a century ago, and continuing right on up to…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 15, 2009 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Science Meets Settler Theology, or How Frankenstein Embraced Godzilla

  Last week, in a blog post about Jewish terrorism and the implicit support of religious nationalist rabbis, I mentioned that Rabbi Shlomo Aviner of Ateret Cohanim yeshiva has a gutsy liberal side and that I would explain it in a later post. Well, here we go. We’re going to get philosophical here. Aviner is a…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 13, 2009 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Abortion and Morality

  During the recent floor debate in Congress on health care legislation, Rep. Mike Pence, chair of the House Republican Conference, employed the language of morality to frame his support of the Pitts-Stupak amendment to prevent federal subsidies from going to any insurance plans that cover abortion. Using federal dollars to fund abortions “violates the deeply…

  Nov 11, 2009 | 2 min read
• Letters

  November 20, 2009

  What Happens When Jews Stop Serving? Deborah Dash Moore’s informative and poignant opinion piece, “The World That Jewish Veterans Built,” raises troubling questions about the contemporary relationship of the American Jewish community to military service (November 13). Ever since the late-18th century, European Jews fought to prove their battle-worthiness in order to gain political rights….

  Nov 11, 2009 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Age of Transparency

  When the Forward published a comprehensive story last week on leadership and compensation in the nation’s 75 largest Jewish communal organizations, it relied on data routinely made public by the federal government for all nonprofits. It takes time to find the information, double check the numbers, and draw out the story, but the fact is…

  Nov 11, 2009 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Missing the Abu Mazen Opportunity

  In June 2004 I visited Mahmoud Abbas in Amman. We met at the PLO’s official residence, where Abu Mazen (as Abbas is popularly known among both Palestinians and Israelis) likes to stay whenever he is in Jordan. We spent almost the entire day in conversation together. During our meeting, we discussed efforts to revive the…

  By Yossi Beilin Nov 11, 2009 | 5 min read