Louis Keene is a reporter for the Forward. His work has also been published in The New York Times, New York Magazine and VICE. He is based in Los Angeles and can be followed on Twitter @thislouis.
Louis Keene
By Louis Keene
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Culture In Surfside, a Jewish tragedy receives a Jewish response
The volunteers trudged to the mansion’s front door, their heads covered, most of them wearing the same navy T-shirts they had been wearing all week, their uniform. It was about four hours shy of eight full days since the men of Hatzalah of South Florida responded to a call about a building in Surfside that…
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News The Surfside disaster devastated the Young Judaea community, which lost several members in the collapsed tower
The mourners came from San Juan to the Surfside condominium where George Matz had lived to attend their friend’s funeral after his monthslong battle with COVID-19. Theirs was a bond that spanned generations, ZIP codes, and — perhaps most importantly — edahs, or age groups — in Young Judaea, the U.S.-based Zionist youth movement that…
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News Meet the Jewish trio who just raised $1.35 million for Surfside
The three 30-somethings met just a few weeks ago at a Marriott hotel pool party one of them threw to welcome himself to Surfside, Fla. They lamented that the community lacked a young Jewish professionals’ group, and decided to start one. The first event they organized was a Shabbat dinner at their synagogue, the Shul…
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Fast Forward Dispatch from Surfside’s only kosher market
To get a sense of how Surfside’s Jewish community has grown in recent years, head to Kosherland, a humble three-aisle grocery located a few blocks from the collapsed Champlain South condominium, and try to buy milk. Kosherland is the only kosher market in Surfside, and soon it will expand into the neighboring two storefronts. But…
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News From Ground Zero to Surfside, a bond between tragedies emerges
With a residential tower in Surfside, Fla., reduced to a smoking heap of debris several stories high, and families near the site holding onto slim hopes of their loved ones’ rescue, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik found himself revisiting the trauma of September 11, 2001, when he was the Jewish chaplain for the New York City Fire…
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News Miami rabbi: At least 50 Jewish missing in Surfside collapse
A Miami rabbi who is providing spiritual support to grieving families near the Surfside, Fla., disaster site estimated that at least 50 Jewish people — and perhaps many more — are missing after Thursday’s collapse of the condominium tower. Rabbi Julie Jacobs leads Beth David Congregation, an unaffiliated synagogue in Miami where Miami-Dade County Mayor…
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News ‘They need a miracle’— aid pours in for Jewish victims of Surfside, Florida building collapse
Jewish organizations are urging people around the world to pray for all the victims of the catastrophic residential tower collapse near Miami, including some 20 Jewish people estimated to be among the 99 missing in the tragedy. A section of a 12-story condominium tower in Surfside, Fla., collapsed late Wednesday night, flattening more than 50…
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News Israel’s baseball team heads to Olympics with made-in-America talent
In 2017, a ragtag bunch of Jewish minor leaguers, retired pros and semi-pros competing as Team Israel made a miracle run at the World Baseball Classic, winning its first six games and ultimately finishing in sixth place. They’ll be in Tokyo next month to prove it wasn’t a fluke — with a former all-star supplying…
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