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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Summer Is The Time To Escape From The Bondage Of Addiction
Summer is not only a time of more “light” but also more “lite.” Along with the shedding of layers there is also less structure, less supervision and less accountability. Students in particular transition from intense study to absolute freedom, with hours and hours of nothing productive to do. But instead of enjoying the freedom, all…
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An Insider’s Guide To Staying Sane On JSwipe
Just over a year ago, I was a nervous wreck. I was set to move to a new city over 2,000 miles away for my last summer internship before my senior year of college. The number of people I knew there could be counted on a single hand. Inspired by friends, I made a J…
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What The Holocaust Museum Teaches Us About Human Nature
A version of this article originally appeared in the Texas Jewish Post. This wasn’t the first time I had been to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. I had gone many years earlier as a day school student on a school trip to our nation’s capital and keenly remember the powerful effect…
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Learning On Empty: Combatting Israel’s Breakfast Crisis
This past week, former First Lady Michelle Obama strongly criticized the Trump administration’s efforts to delay programs to make federally subsidized school breakfasts and lunches more nutritious, noting that million of children nationwide rely on schools to provide healthy food for the first two meals of their day. Obama was underscoring a major issue in…
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American Knesset Intern Made To Put On Leggings Before Entering Israeli Parliament
For those of us in Jerusalem who are not religious, there’s a certain unwritten legal code that is passed around among the secular. After a few weeks, the art of being appropriate (rather, appropriate enough) becomes second nature: try not to bump into charedi men on the bus. Don’t walk through religious neighborhoods while using…
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How Channeling My Inner Miriam Helped Me Heal After My Sexual Assault
A version of this article originally appeared in New Voices. I screamed no. I screamed no, and he didn’t listen. He listened when I said yes to going to his room, he listened when I said yes to making out, but when I said no to sex, he didn’t listen. That’s rape. He took away…
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Israel Bans Gruesome Shackle And Hoist Slaughterhouse Method Imports
Israel is Ending “Shackle and Hoist” Imports. The United States must follow suit. What is the price of consuming kosher meat? Is it a means to achieve a level of Godliness here on Earth, or is it the violent perpetuation of cruelty and needless pain on innocent creatures? The contemporary response can only be a…
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How Bipolar Disorder Shook Me To My Core — And Made Me Whole Again
A version of this article originally appeared in New Voices. When I was in first grade, my family set high academic standards. From day one, my father told me I was going to Harvard, despite my learning barriers. For years, that belief was instilled in me, and I made sure to fit his dream, skeptical…
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Who Is To Blame For The Occupation?
Conversations about the Israel-Palestine conflict have long been maddeningly predictable. “Pro-Israel” and “Pro-Palestinian” voices line up against each other — categories in themselves crazy-making, as if treating violent conflicts like football tournaments makes any sense. Discussions quickly degenerate into a battle over who is ultimately to blame, with different historical narratives thrown at each other…
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Why Are Most Kosher Restaurants So Terrible?
Editor’s Note: Since publication on May 16, 2017, this piece has sparked many heated and thoughtful discussions online. In the coming days, we’ll be featuring several responses from readers and Jewish communal leaders alike. To pitch your own take, send us an email. An abandoned hostess stand greets you. Delivery orders are piled high on…
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The Barack Obama Standard
Many a critical eyebrow was raised after erstwhile President Barack Obama accepted $400,000 from Cantor Fitzgerald to speak at a health conference. That’s a lot of money for a single speech, and from Wall Street, no less. Fox Business News chided Obama questioning whether he is “Wall Street’s Newest Fat Cat” — recalling Obama’s own…
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Culture Why saying ‘L’shana Tova’ on Rosh Hashanah may not be the correct phrase
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Culture A Jewish prophet of the 1980s would be horrified to see that we didn’t heed his warnings
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Opinion With killing of Hezbollah’s chief, Israel occupies the inarguable moral high ground
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Opinion This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
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Film & TV How Leonard Cohen — and a Yom Kippur prayer — inspired a coming-of-age epic
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Opinion A year after Oct. 7, Israel has the chance to remake its future — for better or worse
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Opinion Campus protests defined the year since Oct. 7. Could they actually change U.S. policy?
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Special Report At the kibbutz hit hardest on Oct. 7, a wrenching debate over how to rebuild
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