Opinion (Page 7)

By Lillian Faderman , The Advocate Americans have every reason to envy Israel’s enlightened policies toward their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens. So it puzzles me deeply when I hear of LGBT groups lending their sympathy to opponents of Israel. The rights we have been fighting for and stillContinue Reading

By Joel Alperson , JTA World News Service OMAHA, Neb. (JTA) — A lot of my hometown of Omaha, Neb., was under water in the final days of July. Pumps were set down at various locations, including at a nuclear power plant located not far from town that had toContinue Reading

By Rabbi Eric Yoffie , JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — I have no patience for survival Judaism. Whenever I hear someone talk about what Jews must do in order to “survive,” I head for the door. Joel Alperson has joined the long list of Jewish communal leadersContinue Reading

By Ilana Cone Kennedy , Special to JTNews I am honored to have recently been selected as a recipient of the Pamela Waechter Jewish Communal Service Award. Having known and admired Pam, this award is especially meaningful to me. In a recent discussion about the award, two of the HolocaustContinue Reading

By Robert Wilkes , Special to JTNews I can only imagine what my grandfather experienced as a Jew in the Ukraine before he immigrated to America in 1905. In my earliest memories he is very old; my mother was the last in a large family. In his musty Victorian houseContinue Reading

By Anav Silverman , Special to JTNews Will the recognition and creation of a Palestinian state by the United Nations Security Council magically end Mideast unrest? Can the UN fulfill the role of the Wizard of Oz and help ensure that such a state truly serves its people? Palestinian AuthorityContinue Reading

By Wendy Rosen , Special to JTNews The “Arab Spring” that has already toppled autocracies in Tunisia and Egypt and threatens to do likewise to others, raises hope for a transition to democracy in North Africa and the Middle East. But the process could be pushed disastrously off track byContinue Reading

By Rabbi Steven Wernick , United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism One of Judaism’s most profound ideas is the notion that each year at Shavuot each of us stands at Mount Sinai, poised to receive the Torah as if for the first time.  The holiday, in other words, is an annualContinue Reading

By Robert Wilkes , Special to JTNews My new friends from Zimbabwe saw their homeland devastated and looted in a manner not seen since Attila swept west from the Volga. They left Zimbabwe for a time and lived in South Africa, where the murder rate is 34 per 100,000 (itContinue Reading

By Joel Lion , JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — With Richard Goldstone himself admitting that the infamous Goldstone Report was critically flawed, this is the best opportunity we have had in two years to bring to light the misconceptions of Operation Cast Lead. In his April 2Continue Reading

By Gershon Baskin , The Jerusalem Post JERUSALEM — It’s difficult to think about peace when missiles are flying from Gaza into Israel, and when innocent civilians on both sides are regularly forced to take cover. Yes, it’s true that Hamas and its proxies in Gaza intentionally shoot at IsraeliContinue Reading

By Edward Alexander , Special to JTNews Jews often have occasion to lament the truth of the biblical text that says that our enemies will arise from among us: Many of Israel’s fiercest enemies today are themselves Jews. But we also (sometimes) have occasion to rejoice that some of Israel’sContinue Reading

By Simcha Shtull , Special to JTNews Last week I joined more than 2,400 supporters of Israel — 20 of them from Washington State — at the second J Street Conference in Washington, D.C. The forum in which I found myself was comprised of activists, students, political analysts, members ofContinue Reading

By Richard Silverstein , Special to JTNews Robert Wilkes, in the last issue of JTNews, wrote this about me: …Many American [Jews]…support pro-Palestinian groups and the BDS movement…and seek to delegitimize Israel. They employ tropes such as “apartheid” and “Israeli-Nazi war machine” to create a smokescreen of twisted facts andContinue Reading

By Robert Wilkes , Special to JTNews Robert Wilkes is a political columnist who writes from a conservative viewpoint. Robert’s column this week concerns matters of Jewish survival and is not about American politics. If you think American politics is discordant, Israel’s is a cacophony. Since the beginning of theContinue Reading

By Howard Gale , Special to JTNews This letter, drafted by Howard Gale of Seattle and signed by 42 other members of Seattle’s Jewish community, was presented to King County Executive Dow Constantine on Jan. 10 protesting the county’s decision to cancel advertisements critical of Israel that would have runContinue Reading

By David Shayne , Special to JTNews Were the ads sponsored by the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign to run on Seattle Metro buses this month really so offensive and incendiary that King County chose wisely in not running them? Or do they constitute a legitimate and reasonable political message thatContinue Reading

By Dan Brown , eJewishPhilanthropy.com The Jewish communal world has a problem. Well, several, but today let’s focus on one: The continuing gender gap in North American Jewish organizations. A recently released study, titled “Jewish Communal Professionals in North American: A Profile,” provides an unprecedented look at more than 2,000Continue Reading

By Ethan Felson , JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — What’s old is new, and unfortunately this holiday season, wrapped in a bow, is a boycott of things Israeli and Jewish. The relics of the past boycotts — from Nuremberg to Damascus — are back. Uninterested in reconciliation,Continue Reading