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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Sorry, Rabbis: Gay Men Can’t Be Happy With Women — I Married One And I Know
As some in the Sephardi world stand in an uproar as one rabbi opens a dialog around homosexuality, I am grief stricken. Rabbi Joseph Dweck, Chief Rabbi of the Spanish Portuguese community in London, recently gave a class discussing homosexuality in the context of Jewish texts. His words in no way permitted that which is…
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Why I Used My Tallit to Disrupt a Christian Zionist Jubilee
This story hits its crescendo as I am manhandled out of a church, gripping my tallit (prayer shawl) and kippah to remain steady, surrounded by the dissonant chorus of hundreds of Evangelical congregants chanting “Am Yisrael Chai” (“Long Live the People Israel”) to disperse Jewish protesters from their midst. Twisting those words of our faith…
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What It’s Like To Be A Queer Female Cantor
When you hear the word ‘Cantor’ or the Hebrew word chazzan, the image in your mind might be a man in a miter or top hat, wearing a tallit (prayer shawl), with a beard, or perhaps the iconic Yossele Rosenblatt, the famous tenor from the Golden Age of Cantors, or a clean-shaven Israeli man in…
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JVP’s Targeting Of LGBTQ Youth Shows ‘An Unbelievable Lack Of Empathy’
Jewish queer youth are a vulnerable population of Jews being unfairly targeted for Disruption and sabotage by an organization called Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). While it is important to counter the distortions and dishonesty disseminated about the group’s disruptions at the Celebrate Israel Parade (and I will below), it is far more urgent to…
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WATCH: How These Five High Schoolers Got To Interview Netanyahu
One week before President Donald Trump’s visit to Israel, I, along with four other American Jewish teenagers, had our own private meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the age of 15, when I began to wrestle with the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I could never have imagined my questioning would lead me to…
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The Crucial Congressional Resolutions On Yemen You Haven’t Heard About
One of the year’s most crucial resolutions is about to go to a vote in the United States Congress, and the American Jewish community is missing it. For all of the conversations and debates in our community about Middle East issues, we rarely hear a word about Yemen. The most impoverished Arab-majority country, Yemen is…
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Wine Of The Week: A Kosher Riesling Available for Under $20…On Amazon!
Engel Reisling 2016 — Finger Lakes, New York This is one of those wines that’s dangerous to drink alone; too smooth to stop at just one 5 ounce standard serving, I find myself wanting to drink it from a tall glass filled with ice — sophistication be damned. This sounds blasphemous, I know, but with…
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JVP: Reactions To Our Parade Protest Were ‘Cruel,’ ‘Homophobic,’ and ‘Hyperbolic’
The role of direct action in movements for justice has always been to agitate and provoke, to dramatize urgent issues and invite people to take a side. In fact, that was precisely our goal in organizing the waves of disruptions this past Sunday at the Celebrate Israel parade in New York City, the day before…
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Is Keeping Shabbat A Choice?
A version of this article originally appeared in the Texas Jewish Post. I find Shabbat dinner to be the perfect setting for those deep philosophical conversations that happen so rarely these days. We’re all so busy with work, family, technology and never-ending errands that finding the time or space to have meaningful conversations is becoming…
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Protesters Aren’t The Problem — The Celebrate Israel Parade Is.
Watching Israel being celebrated in the Celebrate Israel Parade in NYC felt, in some ways, like a surreal experience — but, tragically, it was very real. People were chanting and screaming in support of Israel. American and Israeli flags were intertwined. Israeli settlements were celebrated. Some yarmulkes bore Donald Trump’s name. Juxtapose Israel being hugely…
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EXCLUSIVE: Jewish Voice For Peace ‘Targeted’ Gay Group At Celebrate Israel Parade
Five activists from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) were arrested Sunday afternoon at the 69th annual Celebrate Israel Parade in New York City for third degree trespassing and disorderly conduct, an NYPD spokesman told the Forward. The group targeted, infiltrated and disrupted a contingent of participants from five Jewish LGBTQ organizations, including Jewish Queer Youth….
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