Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at feldman@forward.com. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.
Ari Feldman
By Ari Feldman
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News A Hasidic village’s coronavirus tests went from 34% positive to 4% in a month. The county health commissioner is asking how.
In the course of about a month, the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel, N.Y., managed to drop its rate of positive tests for coronavirus infection by a dramatic 30 points — from 34.2% in the last week of September, to 4.2% this week, according to state data released Wednesday. Town leaders and New York Gov….
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News Cuomo eases some coronavirus measures, but keeps largest Orthodox centers in strict ‘red zones’
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo relaxed coronavirus control measures Wednesday for parts of the state with elevated rates of infection, but several areas in the New York City area with large Orthodox Jewish communities will remain within the state’s most restricted zones. Under the new rules, two parts of the borough of Queens — around…
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News Why is this Orthodox group playing nice with Cuomo, even after he shut down their wedding?
On Sunday morning, State Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, an Orthodox Jew who represents the Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park, accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of “shamelessly stoking the embers of antisemitism.” Around that time, Cuomo was getting a much friendlier reception from a different set of Orthodox leaders — those from the Satmar Hasidic community,…
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News Breaking up services didn’t work. Fines didn’t work. Will cutting funding keep yeshivas closed?
Police officers have failed to break up large gatherings of mask-less people. Synagogues and schools have stayed open despite being fined $15,000. Now New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying a new way of getting Orthodox Jewish schools in areas with high coronavirus infection rates to shut down: hit them in the wallet. An executive…
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Life ‘Power of prayer:’ Rabbis reflect on Amy Coney Barrett’s statement of faith
“I believe in the power of prayer,” Judge Amy Coney Barrett said during her Senate confirmation hearings this week, “and it has been uplifting to hear that so many people are praying for me.” Barrett is a passionate Catholic whose faith has been the subject of much debate since President Trump nominated her to replace…
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News The ‘Magenta Yenta’ is back, and she’s Heshy Tischler’s defense lawyer
On Wednesdays, Mindy Meyer wears pink. But for court appearances, she wears black. On Monday she donned her usual courtroom attire — complete with a black mask — for the arraignment of her latest client, Heshy Tischler. Meyer, an Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn, won a measure of tabloid fame in 2012 for mounting a failed…
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Fast Forward Report: organizers of five Brooklyn High Holiday gatherings hit with $15,000 fines
The organizers of five Jewish religious gatherings in the Hasidic hub of Borough Park, Brooklyn, received maximum-allowable $15,000 fines for violating state rules limiting such gatherings to 10 people in areas where coronavirus infection rates are highest, sources told the New York Post. The city said that it handed out $150,000 total in fines in…
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News Orthodox Jews quietly defy coronavirus restrictions to celebrate last of the High Holidays
Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn proceeded with some indoor and outdoor holiday celebrations in their synagogues over the weekend, in defiance of restrictions limiting all religious gatherings to 10 or fewer people in neighborhoods where the rates of coronavirus infection have gone sharply up in recent weeks. On Saturday evening in Borough Park — a neighborhood…
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