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.
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.
Israel has become a defining fact of Jewish life for Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews alike
Her tireless support for victims made us feel that sharing could be a positive thing.
One fine day in the spring of 419 or 418 BCE, a Jewish soldier opened up an official missive sent to him and his fellow troops stationed in upper Egypt. The author of the letter was Hananiah, a Jewish official in Yahud, the name the Persians assigned to the former region of Judah. As…
To the editor: The Forward recently published a review by Jay Michaelson of “The Rational Passover Haggadah” by Dennis Prager. As the editor of this Haggadah, which Dr. Michaelson proclaims contains “idiotic, arrogant pronouncements… on almost every page,” I feel duty bound to respond, both to protect Dennis Prager and myself, as the editor, from…
There’s a moment in “Death Defying Escape,” a new play by comedian Judy Carter, when I realized I’d been tricked. The three-actor production, now running at Hollywood’s intimate Hudson Theater, tracks Carter’s life: as a child growing up in L.A.’s Fairfax district (“We were the poor Jews,” she quips, “we still had our original noses.”);…
As the war in Ukraine makes painfully clear, suffering at the hands of violent oppressors is hardly a thing of the past and certainly not ancient history. Inhumanity persists through time immemorial, and even a celebration of liberation is tinged with the reality that no people are free until all are free. Here are three…
Alla Gutnikova is a Russian Jewish woman, and one of the former editors of the Moscow Higher School of Economics’ student journal “DOXA.” Gutnikova, along with four of her fellow editors, was sentenced to two years of correctional labor each for their role in a video questioning whether it was right for Russian teachers to…
I decided to take the kids on a trip to cheer them up. A volunteer from Romania drove us to a local mall in Slovakia. These Ukrainian children will be starting school in Slovakia soon, and I wanted them to feel a little bit normal and excited by new clothes, backpacks and school supplies. I…
For the past few years, I have been adding a split open pomegranate to my Seder plate. In addition to the traditional six items on the plate, plus an orange as a symbol of LGBTQIA+ inclusion and, this year, sunflowers in honor of Ukraine’s fight for freedom, the pomegranate symbolizes something both personal and meaningful…
Dnipro, one of the largest cities in Ukraine, is surrounded by Russian fighting. As Putin’s invasion intensifies, the city is urging people to flee, and things are looking grim. But I know the resilience of this city firsthand: I watched as Jewish life was rebuilt after decades of suppression, and I know that they will…
As often happens with old souls, our nearly 12-year-old Schnauzer is showing a late-life hunger for religious sustenance. He rouses himself from cushioned slumber whenever we prepare for Friday night Shabbat dinner, fidgeting as I place the candles, wine cups and especially bread board on our dining room table. He also joins my wife and…
To Denise, I was an open book. For almost a year, through the endless blur that followed the first COVID shutdown, I shared with her the intimate details of my life. No, she wasn’t my psychologist, rabbi or spouse. She’s a sociologist running an oral history project. In April 2020, my dad died from COVID….
100% of profits support our journalism