Scribe, the Forward’s curated contributor network, is a place for showcasing personal experiences and perspective from across our Jewish communities. Here you will find a wide array of reflections on Jewish issues, life-cycle events, spirituality, culture and more.
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You say matzah — and matzo and matzuh and matzee and more
Readers respond to our editor-in-chief’s column about a Passover copy-editing conundrum
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How Should Israeli-Palestinian Civil Society Respond To Trump’s Jerusalem Move?
Shortly after he helped produce the Balfour Declaration that 100 years ago gave great momentum to the enterprise to establish the Jewish National Home in Palestine, and well before he became Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann cautioned that “the Zionist Congress …. Has to learn the truth that Palestine is not Rhodesia and that 600,000…
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There’s No Such Thing As Judeo-Christian Values — Especially Not In The GOP.
“We’ve stopped the government’s attacks on our Judeo-Christian values,” President Trump said at a campaign rally and makeshift Roy Moore endorsement speech in Pensacola on December 8. “We don’t worship government, we worship God,” the President continued. Trump has used the exact same phrasing in previous speeches. “We don’t worship government, we worship God,” he…
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Trump’s Defense Of Roy Moore Reminds Me Of My Ultra-Orthodox Rabbis
In April of 2016, I wrote about my disillusionment with the country’s fascination and exuberance for Donald Trump as a presidential candidate. As an ex-Orthodox Jew, I believed the secular world and American ideals I yearned for as a child would never drown to the subterranean levels we witnessed during the 2016 campaign. But after…
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How Much Do Diaspora Jews Matter To Israel?
President Reuven Rivlin’s 2015 “Tribes” speech spoke of the existence of a “new Israeli order” that comprises four main tribes: secular, ultra-Orthodox, Arabs, and religious Zionists. That, supposedly, is the Israeli collective: a federation of tribes with a common future, even if they disagree profoundly regarding the appropriate vision for the State of Israel. Yet…
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When Criticism Of Israel Becomes Anti-Semitic
While Twitter can sometimes enable worthwhile conversations between people who would not otherwise cross paths, it can also function as an echo chamber where the same arguments are repeated ad infinitum. So it is with the usual suspects who constantly feel compelled to assert that “criticizing Israel isn’t anti-Semitic. Calling it anti-Semitic is a silencing…
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The Laws Of Hanukkah 101: All Of Your Burning Questions, Answered
Q: Can electric candles be used for Hanukkah? A: According to Rabbi Yosef Messas[i], one is allowed to light an electric Hanukkiah, reciting the blessings before flipping the switch or tightening the light bulb. The most common situation where this would be required is when staying at a hotel where it is forbidden to light…
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It’s Time To Stop Excusing Palestinian Violence
In the lead up to the day when David Ben-Gurion read aloud Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948, there was a fierce battle in the U.S. Administration surrounding whether to recognize the new Jewish State. Secretary of State and five-star U.S. Army General George C. Marshall led a large and influential group of senior officials…
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It’s Israel-Bashing Season Again At The U.N.
It is this time of the year again. On December 10, International Human Rights Day, the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), launched a year-long campaign for the 50th anniversary of the two International Covenants on Human Rights. The victims of human rights violations in the world must be sighing in relief at this good…
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Trump Declared Jerusalem Israel’s Capital — So What Happens Next?
Jerusalem — Be careful what you wish for. The Jewish right in Israel and the United States are doing somersaults and handstands now that the United States has formally recognized “Jerusalem” to be the capital of the State of Israel. As with all things Donald, nothing good is going to come of it, not for…
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75 Years Ago, Brave Poles Documented Nazi Atrocities
As we search for leaders of integrity and bravery, we would do very well to remember the actions of some outstanding and honourable Poles during World War II. Readers may be unaware that December 10 is the 75th Anniversary of an extraordinary but sad historical document, “The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland,”…
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My University Asked Jewish Students To Break Bread With A Woman Who Tweeted Anti-Semitic Tropes
On Monday, December 11th, the Khan Liberal Arts Institute at Smith College will be hosting a panel discussion featuring Valerie Plame Wilson. After her initial invitation, consisting of a talk about her time as a CIA operations officer, was received and accepted, the news broke that Plame had retweeted an anti-Semitic article to her nearly…
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Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
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Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
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Fast Forward Over 500 rabbis sign letter rejecting Trump’s antisemitism agenda
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Film & TV In ‘The Rehearsal,’ Nathan Fielder fights the removal of his Holocaust fashion episode
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Fast Forward AJC, USC Shoah Foundation announce partnership to document antisemitism since World War II
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Yiddish יצחק באַשעװיסעס מיינונגען וועגן די אַמעריקאַנער ייִדןIsaac Bashevis’ opinion of American Jews
אין זײַנע „פֿאָרווערטס“־אַרטיקלען האָט ער קריטיקירט זייער צוגאַנג צום חורבן און צו ייִדישקײט.
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