Opinion

OP-ED: Why I led my Orthodox Jewish classmates on the national gun control walkout

Students at the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Skokie, Ill., holding a sign at their walkout to protest gun violence, March 14, 2018. (Ida Crown Jewish Academy)

CHICAGO (JTA) — I’m a sophomore at Ida Crown Jewish Academy, the largest Modern Orthodox high school in the Chicagoland area. When I heard about the #ENOUGH national school walkout, I immediately wondered how my school could participate. Our school motto is “Inspiring Bnei and Bnot Torah to thrive… Read more »

OP-ED: Poland was a world leader in the cause of Holocaust remembrance. It can be again.

A view of the barracks from Auschwitz-Birkenau in the U.S. Holocaust Museum's permanent exhibition. (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Recent alarming events in Poland, most notably a law “protecting the reputation of the Polish nation” by criminalizing certain speech regarding the Holocaust, have led me to reflect on my own relationship with that country. It’s a relationship that spans three decades, dozens of visits, various… Read more »

OP-ED Post-Parkland activism shows teens don’t need our praise. They need a place at the table.

Marjory Stoneman High School student Cameron Kasky addresses area students as they rally at his school after participating in a countywide school walkout in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 21, 2018. (Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) — In the aftermath of the fatal mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, the Jewish community should take note: Teenagers are not just the future of the Jewish people; they are the dynamic force driving social change today. Today we are witnessing history unfold as the American teenage populace… Read more »

OP-ED: Why Wayne LaPierre’s CPAC speech freaked out Jews and heartened anti-Semites

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., Feb. 22, 2018. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

(JTA) — I don’t know if Wayne LaPierre is anti-Semitic. In many ways, I don’t care if Wayne LaPierre is anti-Semitic. But the executive vice president of the NRA gave a speech this week that was heard as anti-Semitic by two kinds of people: left-leaning Jews and hard-right anti-Semites.… Read more »

OP-ED: Here’s why we report on the Jewish victims of general tragedies

A makeshift memorial erected in front of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., days after the shooting that left 17 students and teachers dead, Feb. 18, 2018. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

(JTA) — In the many years between my first job at JTA and returning as its editor in 2016, I would joke about a headline it published in 1999: “Two Turkish Jews killed in quake.” Perhaps you’ll remember that 17,000 people died in the Turkish earthquake that year. That headline seemed… Read more »

OP-ED Israel needs Trump to contain Iran. He’s off to a good start.

President Donald Trump in the White House, Feb. 9, 2018. (Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty Images)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The latest episode of Iran flexing its regional hegemonic muscles in the Middle East came with a direct and unprecedented military challenge to Israel. Last week, Iran used a technologically advanced drone – reverse-engineered from a U.S. drone captured in 2011 – to penetrate Israel’s… Read more »

OP-ED Jewish men need to talk about #MeToo

(Tabitha Kaylee Hawk/Flickr Commons)

(JTA) — Like a lot of other Jewish men, I have been quietly keeping a scorecard of the number of Jewish men in the #MeToo headlines. Harvey Weinstein, Dustin Hoffman, Jeffrey Tambor, Mark Halperin, Leon Wieseltier, James Toback, Israel Horowitz, Al Franken, James Levine, Jeremy Priven, Woody Allen, Brett Ratner, Michael Oreskes, Bruce Weber — all have been accused in… Read more »

OP-ED The two-state delusion is the greatest obstacle to peace

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Arab-Israeli conflict is entering a phase more likely to lead to resolution than any that preceded it. The mindless mantra “there is no alternative to the two-state solution” is giving way to reality. The Palestinian Authority has never been a partner for peace. A 23rd… Read more »

OP-ED: 6 ways to address sexual harassment in the Jewish community

Lisa Eisen (Courtesy of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation)

(JTA) — #MeToo. #GamAni. The stories are numerous and painful. They span decades and reach every corner of the Jewish community. Enough is enough. The time is now for us to finally and fully address sexual harassment in Jewish institutional life. When it comes to sexual harassment, Jewish teachings are… Read more »

Don’t destroy the two-state solution

(L-R): Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994 after winning the Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in the Oslo Accords. in the year 2525 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Several recent political measures in Israel — including announcements by Israel’s parliament, attorney general and ruling party — have significantly begun to undermine the possibility of achieving a two-state solution. Let me be clear: When discussing why the peace process has been stalled for so many years, one has… Read more »

What Martin Luther King Jr. learned on his only visit to Jerusalem

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preaches in 1960 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

On Easter Sunday in 1959, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rose in the pulpit of his Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, to deliver a sermon that focused on his just-completed visit, with his wife, Coretta, to Jerusalem and its holy sites. King’s trip that month to… Read more »

What a liberal rabbi learned at the Trump Hanukkah party

Rabbi David Kaufman and his wife Julie, attend the White House Hanukkah party in Washington, D.C., Dec. 7, 2017. (Courtesy of Kaufman)

DES MOINES, Iowa (JTA) — A Jewish woman walks into the post office to buy Hanukkah stamps for her holiday cards. The person behind the counter asks, “What denominations?” The Jewish woman responds, “Oy! Are we so polarized? Some Orthodox, some Conservative and some Reform.” Yes, we are so… Read more »

OP-ED Winners and losers as the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

A patron at a Jerusalem pub watches as President Donald Trump recognizes the city as Israel's capital, Dec. 6, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

(JTA) — President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and his announcement that he will move the embassy there from Tel Aviv will have a number of consequences for Israelis, Palestinians and the wider region. For Israel, it has finally received from an American president… Read more »

OP-ED: How Jews on the left and the right are empowering BDS

An aerial view of Michigan Stadium as the sun rises on the University of Michigan campus. (University of Michigan/Flickr)

(JTA) — The BDS debacle at the University of Michigan proved once again that Jews can be their own worst enemies. Since 2002, the University of Michigan’s Central Student Government (CSG) has, on 10 occasions, rejected resolutions to support the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction the State… Read more »

OP-ED Jews make news, but when is it Jewish news?

A screenshot from Google Images shows several prominent Jews accused of sexual harassment in the past month. (Google Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — “Is So-and-So Jewish? How Jewish is she? Find out if she’s Jewish.” I often joke that JTA reporters and anti-Semitic bloggers write the same stories, only with different headlines. We proudly search down Jewish celebrities to show the diverse ways that Jews are contributing to… Read more »