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
Shimon HaTzadik (the Righteous) was a high priest during the Second Temple period. He would say, “On three things the world stands: On the Torah, on prayer, and on acts of kindness.” Later commentators would add that these three principles were the basis of why God created the world. In this light, a person can…
View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Forward (@jdforward) To contact the artist, email [email protected].
To the editor: The Forward reports that some Orthodox rabbis oppose extending daylight saving time throughout the year because “a 9 a.m. sunrise” would require them to attend to their morning prayers late and delay their arrival at work. Let’s first take a look at Jewish law. The 20 volume Babylonian Talmud begins with a…
Sameh: When Uriya came to meet me 20 months ago at the bar I was managing in Jaffa, I suspected he was another patronizing Israeli looking for a token Arab for his project. I have always been an outspoken artist over my 20-year career as a leading performer in the Palestinian rap scene. I have…
This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forward’s free newsletters delivered to your inbox. Download and print our free magazine of stories to savor over Shabbat and Sunday. A news release that hit my inbox late Thursday afternoon made…
As the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, I’ll never forget seeing insurrectionists with Nazi regalia marching 20 feet from my home during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. I’ll never forget locking myself in my apartment with my wife and dog, unsure whether we’d have to flee the city. My wife did not leave the…
Two years before my bat mitzvah, I dressed up as a bar mitzvah boy. It was the holiday of Purim, when costumed revelers celebrate biblical Esther’s derring-do. I wore a red blouse with an oversized collar tucked into chocolate brown Levi’s corduroys, a wrinkled yarmulke borrowed from my father, and a blue-striped magic-markered muslin “prayer…
This Purim, let’s take a moment to appreciate one of the great reputational rehabilitations in my Jewish lifetime: Queen Vashti. We know how the story goes: King Ahashuerus, partying with his friends and “merry with wine,” called for Queen Vashti to display her beauty. Vashti refused to obey her husband and was never to be…
The most dangerous physical threat to our children and grandchildren on university campuses may not be COVID or antisemitism, but something well-intentioned leaders don’t even consider. In the United States, alcohol is a significant factor in deaths and injuries of college students and young professionals, making drinking one of the most dangerous parts of college….
Purim is, among other things, a festival of blame. We gather as a community to publicly name and boo the bad guy. I have always hated this aspect of Purim; it feels wrong to revel in the evil of another human being. As a kid, I would cover my ears and shift uncomfortably in my…
In an apartment some 65 miles from our Jerusalem home lives a woman who has impacted our lives profoundly. My wife Frimet and I have spent years trying to get her imprisoned for the rest of her life. On March 14, 2017, five years ago today, the Department of Justice in Washington charged Ahlam Aref…
100% of profits support our journalism