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.
Community
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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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Check Out These Next-Level Torah Scroll Deli Rolls
The end of Sukkot / Jewish holidaypalooza season is nigh and the holiday of Simchat Torah, a celebration of completing the annual Torah cycle, is almost upon us. Traditionally, Jews celebrate by dancing with Torah scrolls in the synagogue — but some adventurous chefs are dancing with their Torahs and eating them, too. “Love experimenting…
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Harvey Weinstein’s Actions Shock Exactly Zero Women
The dance of dealing with unwanted sexual advances from men is complex, and has to be learned in the real world. I learned about this dance early in life, and so I am not shocked by Harvey Weinstein. I am also not shocked by any of the taxi drivers, professors, colleagues, relatives, friends or strangers…
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Meet Your Clan Members Here
Eleven years ago, barely a week after our family moved into our home in Sandy Springs, Georgia, the weekend edition of the “Atlanta Free Press” arrived at our doorstep. Tucked within its pages was a full-page ad for a Scottish festival at Stone Mountain. In oversized letters, the ad’s banner read “Meet Your Clan Members…
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A Look Inside My Grandparents’ Idyllic Bungalow Colony
On a hot, bright day in the summer of 1981, my grandparents stood with Bud Seif at the entrance to Hillside, the bungalow colony Bud built 30 years before. Located in Dutchess County, just over an hour outside of New York City, Hillside and its 50 bungalows sit on a dirt road off the Taconic…
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Do We Always Have To Tell The Truth?
A version of this article originally appeared in the Texas Jewish Post. I was only a few blocks away from the home of my my inlaws in Baltimore when I quickly switched from the left to the right lane and just as quickly hit the side of an oncoming vehicle. The evidence at the scene…
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What The Talmud Has To Say About The Stars
I have very distinct memories of my childhood nights in the Sukkah. I grew up in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish home in upstate New York. We were not permitted to eat a meal or sleep — even take an afternoon nap – outside the sukkah. After the meal on Sukkot evening, we would put the table…
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The West’s Shameful Failure to Support the Kurds
The aftermath of World War I had left the world’s 30-45 million Kurds split between four countries: Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Since then, they have been clamoring for independence amidst oppression, marginalization and violent persecution at the hands of these four countries. The collapses of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq and Bashar al-Asad’s in…
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When Prayer Is Not Enough
We Jews just finished Yom Kippur, our Day of Atonement, when we beat our chests and apologize, together, for the transgressions of our communities. Today we pound my chests once again — For the sin we have committed against You by not using our voices with more fervor against gun violence For the sin we…
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How Trump’s Visa Changes Could Hurt Jewish Summer Camps
Each year, more than 300 Jewish summer camps across the United States host hundreds of cultural exchange participants, who serve as counselors, lifeguards, activity specialists, and support staff. They bring an array of talents and the best of their home cultures, providing more than 200,000 young American Jewish campers attending Jewish camp with a window…
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Finding God In A Cup Of Coffee
My grandfather loved God dearly, but he didn’t fast on Yom Kippur. He believed that he prayed better on a cup of coffee, and that God would hear him better and appreciate his prayers when he was praying his best. My grandfather felt that God understood him and he understood God. It was a personal…
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Israel Has An Asylum-Seeker Problem — And Here’s What One Tel Aviv Group Is Doing To Help.
A few weeks ago, I was in Israel having a coffee with the great ethnographer of high-tech culture Gideon Kunda, explaining my interest in collaborating on research on the impact of Chinese investment in Israel. After a probing conversation on my work and sensing I was looking for a more meaningful way to make a…
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Opinion Trump’s Iran dithering puts Israel in an unprecedented position
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Fast Forward AIPAC is targeting candidates who want to condition aid to Israel. Who has crossed its red line?
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