Opinion articles that represent the views of the Forward’s editors.
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Opinion A Divestment Campaign We Can Endorse
As 2014 opened, Todd Gitlin, a Columbia University professor and writer, predicted in the Forward that college campuses would become a battleground for activists seeking to stop or stem climate change. “To go out on a limb,” he wrote, “there’s a fighting chance that this campaign will force fossil-fuel divestment at one (at least) major…
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Opinion Supreme Plea for Inclusive Kind of Prayer
Sometime after I became editorial page editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1994, I was invited to have breakfast with Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the archbishop of Philadelphia. Even though my devout Catholic secretary coached me on how to address him and what I might expect, I was apprehensive – afraid that I would feel uncomfortable…
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Opinion The Danger of Denial for Israel
We are not, of course, John Kerry. We have not, in the past nine months, met 34 times with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and reportedly twice that many times with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, staking so much personal energy to achieve the two-state solution that these men say they want but are unwilling to…
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Opinion Pull Back the Curtain — and Let J Street In
If you want to know why ordinary American Jews, especially younger ones, are turning away from the communal establishment — not out of anger but out of disinterest or, perhaps, disgust — then look no further than the convoluted argument over whether J Street should be a member of the Conference of Presidents. J Street:…
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Opinion Hey Mr. Mayor, Remember Your Promise
Hey, Mr. Mayor! When you were the public advocate of the City of New York — an office with little more than a megaphone — you criticized city agencies for failing to respond to Freedom of Information Law requests. Government, you said, must be held accountable! Now, Mr. de Blasio, you’re the mayor, and it’s…
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Opinion What Will Help on Guns?
A troubling new play at Manhattan’s Public Theater begins with an eerie scene of a girl laid out on a table as if in a mortuary, and ends with an enigmatic question. For the 90 minutes in between, the audience witnesses what happens after a disturbed former student opens fire in the crowded library of…
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Opinion A Teachable Moment of Violent Hate
The shooting attack on April 13 that took the lives of three people at Jewish institutions in Kansas City was one of those moments — which have punctuated the last few years — that remind us that it’s still legitimate for Jews to feel vulnerable in this country. Though the details are just emerging and…
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Opinion How You Would Spend Jewish Charity Billions
Do the spending priorities of American Jewish charities match those of American Jews? Judging by an informal but highly revealing poll of Forward readers, the answer is no. As in NO. As in: spend more money on education, culture and community, about the same on general advocacy and much less on Israel. The Forward’s poll…
Most Popular
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News No Jews allowed: White supremacists are building a segregated community in Arkansas, but is it legal?
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News Zohran Mamdani has represented Astoria’s Jews for 4 years. What do they think of him?
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News Curtis Sliwa has a plan to beat Zohran Mamdani in NYC mayor’s race — and it starts with apologizing to Jews
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News What Zohran Mamdani has actually said about Jews, Israel and antisemitism
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Melbourne protesters chant ‘Death to the IDF’ days after attacks on local synagogue, Israeli restaurant
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News He wrote the book on American Jewish history. Stepping back from teaching, Jonathan Sarna says he has plenty of chapters still to go.
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Fast Forward Trump says he didn’t know antisemitic history of ‘Shylock’ when he criticized bankers using the term
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Fast Forward Most New Yorkers deterred by Zohran Mamdani’s support for Israel boycott, but 1 in 3 see it as a boon, poll shows
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