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
For over a decade, I lived down the street from a small urban park improbably named Babi Yar. It was located on the border of Brighton Beach, a community in Brooklyn primarily populated by Jewish members of the former Soviet Union since the 1920s, and Manhattan Beach at the southern tip of Brooklyn. A small…
I live in Poland and work as a rabbi in the local Jewish community, but I’ve been paying close attention to Ukraine since Putin’s last invasion in 2014. I was invigorated by the election of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019, and even more impressed when he stood up to President Donald Trump, refusing to take…
If there is one thing nearly every human being who is even remotely aware of world events would agree upon this week, it’s that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a hero. Just as most reached the same consensus in January about Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who engineered escape for himself and several congregants after hours being held hostage…
Linor Attias is a volunteer United Hatzalah medic and an emergency management specialist at the Israeli Ministry of Justice. She spoke by phone from Moldova’s border with Ukraine on Tuesday with our Nora Berman. At 3 a.m. on Tuesday, a bus full of refugees arrived. Everyone is working constantly — I rose at 3 to…
Air raid sirens now set the rhythm of my life. This new reality, one of many that have emerged since the invasion of Ukraine, is marked by constant worry for relatives, friends and colleagues. We lose contact with those we love for many long hours between the blasts, and we’re forced to acquire the grim…
The KGB men who took me into custody in Ukraine were straight out of central casting. The Bad Cop was older, with a porcine face. He wore a leather trench coat cinched tight to his fat frame, and spoke only Russian. The Good Cop was young and lean: Bobby Kennedy to J. Edgar Hoover. His…
Suddenly, everyone is helping the Ukrainians. The ferocity of the Russian assault on an outgunned neighbor has stiffened spines from Washington to London and sent post-Cold War taboos tumbling across Europe. Pacifist Germany is dispatching weaponry and has promised to spend 2% of GDP on defense going forward. The EU is suddenly in the arms…
Supporters of Israel — indeed, Israelis themselves — might be surprised to learn that the country’s policy on Ukraine is virtually the same as that of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. All have refrained from openly condemning Putin. Why would the position of the area’s only Jewish state and its only democracy dovetail with that of…
President Biden has nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to fill Justice Breyer’s seat on the Supreme Court. The nomination is no doubt historic: If confirmed, Judge Jackson would be the third Black Supreme Court justice and first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. When it comes to matters of church and state, issues…
In November 1987, I visited Soviet refuseniks in Russia as part of a grassroots volunteer organization in Chicago dedicated to helping Soviet Jews. The USSR was in its final days. I recall how few lights were on when my plane landed, a reflection of a nation that struggled to provide basic necessities like electricity. Food…
On the final day of the shortest month on the nation’s official commemorative calendar, I have a question for everyone: How much will you remember of whatever you learned about Black history this month? Or on our pages, how much of Black Jewish history? I ask that not to point fingers, but to sincerely probe…
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