Opinion articles that represent the views of the Forward’s editors.
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Opinion Facing Up to the Fraud
When board members of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany gather next month at their annual meeting, they must seriously consider the continued leadership of their chair, Julius Berman. Berman is a rabbi, a lawyer — first in the class of 1960 at New York University Law School — a longtime communal volunteer…
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Opinion How the Forward Got it Right
Julius Berman, chairman of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, has responded to criticism of his leadership in an 11-page letter sent May 30 to members of his board. In the letter, he lashes out at media coverage and communal leaders who have questioned his handling of a 2001 letter that could have…
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Opinion Breadwinner Moms
Suddenly there’s a new term in our social lexicon to describe a trend both exciting and challenging: the breadwinner mom, the mother who is either the sole or primary breadwinner in her family. In 1960, only 11% of American households fit that description. Now, a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census data puts the…
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Opinion The ‘Unaffiliated’ Danger Within
Is the “unchecked growth of Jewish fundamentalism” the greatest existential threat to the fabric of American Jewish life? Our columnist Jay Michaelson seems to think so. In a passionate (some might say incendiary) column on these pages last week, Michaelson called on mainstream Jewish organizations to distance themselves from the ultra-Orthodox fundamentalist leaders who he…
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Opinion A Moral Responsibility
In November 2010, when the Manhattan U.S. attorney announced the arrest of 17 Brooklyn residents on charges that they bilked the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany out of many millions of dollars, he minced no words. This was “perverse and pervasive fraud,” said prosecutor Preet Bharara. The leadership of what is known as…
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Opinion Food and Faith
Five years ago, what was considered the largest immigration raid in American history trained a harsh spotlight on abusive conditions for workers and animals at the nation’s biggest kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant. The raid on Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa, and the subsequent conviction of its owner on federal financial fraud brought more than…
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Opinion A Bronx Fire, Rekindled
It was just another fire story. Cities are riddled with them: images of flames gushing from an aging building, firefighters scrambling to contain the blaze, neighbors agape, traffic rerouted, burnt holes created in the crowded urban landscape. This story appeared in the New York papers May 2. A five-alarm fire devastated a block of small…
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Opinion The Case for a New Kotel
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of a bold plan to provide equal space for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem are greatly exaggerated. But that doesn’t mean they may not become true. Which is why it is so important that American Jews find every bit of common ground they can…
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Fast Forward Why neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US
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Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite.
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Opinion Just about every interpretation of Trump’s narrow election victory is wrong
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News Texas schools want to add Queen Esther to the curriculum. Here’s why Jews (and many Christians) are opposed.
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Fast Forward Justin Trudeau condemns antisemitism after Montreal pro-Palestinian protest where Netanyahu is burned in effigy
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Fast Forward Three arrested in murder of rabbi in United Arab Emirates; Israel denounces ‘despicable antisemitic act’
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News Trump promised peace in the Middle East. Will his 2020 plan be the blueprint?
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