Wednesday, October 28th 2026   |

Opinions

OP-ED: Ducks in a barrel

By ALAN SMASON

As news reports came out of Poway, California, it occurred to me that I was experiencing a sickening form of deja vu. Yet another lone, white and radicalized gunman bearing an assault rifle had violated the peacefulness...

OP-ED: Notre-Dame will be rebuilt – but most European Jewish sites never will be

By RUTH ELLEN GRUBER

BUDAPEST (JTA) – Architecture and built heritage can be powerful symbols.

Notre-Dame de Paris is one of the most famous and familiar buildings in the world, visited by an astonishing 30,000 people a day, or 13 million...

OP-ED: Assange’s anti-Semitism revisited

By BEN COHEN

 When the fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange first holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London seven years ago, “Brexit” was an unknown word, Donald Trump was still hosting “The Apprentice,” and the Iran nuclear...

OP-ED: I’m an Orthodox rabbi who is going to start officiating LGBTQ weddings. Here’s why.

By RABBI AVRAM MLOTEK

NEW YORK (JTA) – A queer friend of mine from a haredi Orthodox background had posed a query publicly on social media. She had attended a conference on LGBTQ inclusion. There she learned a practice of...

OP-ED: Allowing Michael Steinhardt’s bad behavior is not our biggest mistake. Obsessing over Jewish continuity and megadonors is.

By ROKHL KAFRISSEN 

(JTA) — The high-profile allegations of sexual harassment against Michael Steinhardt are an opportunity for us to deconstruct how money, power and sexism have warped the nonprofit world in the shape of its largest donors. 

Take, for example,...

OP-ED: AIPAC must get tough with the anti-Israel left

By LARRY GREENFIELD

LOS ANGELES (JTA) – AIPAC has long promoted bipartisanship as the key to maintaining broad support for the U.S.-Israel relationship. Members of Congress from both parties regularly attend its annual policy conference, which concluded Tuesday, and the...

OP-ED: Reaction to Trump’s Golan move illustrates the growing divide over Israel

By JONATHAN TOBIN

(JNS.org) — It was a day for Israelis to cheer the unprecedented degree of closeness between their nation and its sole superpower ally. Using his favorite form of communication, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted a clear intention...

Empowered feminism is the real hero of the Purim story

By EMILY RAY BARAF

(JTA) — Purim is often filled with boisterous celebrations, drinking and an embrace of the otherwise taboo.

Yet the Book of Esther recounts a traditional story that confines to the most damaging stereotypes about women, especially...

OP-ED: The Republican Party has its own Israel problem

By LAURA E. ADKINS

NEW YORK (JTA) — Gallup’s 2019 World Affairs Survey confirms something that’s held true for decades: Most American voters, whether Democrat or Republican, support and sympathize with Israel.

Reading the report amid the national uproar over...

OP-ED: The Christchurch mosque massacre and the changing face of extremism

By BEN COHEN

(JNS.org) — By the time America woke up on Friday, Mar. 15, Google’s search engine was jammed with news of a mass shooting at another place of worship in the world. Counts of 49 dead and dozens...