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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The Legacy And The Importance Of Birthright Israel
In early 2005, I went on a journey that will forever hold a place in my heart. Joining other young Jews, I visited Israel for ten days through Birthright Israel. Before that, I visited Israel ten years before on a Bat mitzvah trip with my family. It’s one thing to travel with your family as…
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Want To Be Radical? Forge True Friendship.
In 2017, our minds have succumbed to thinking in antonyms. There are two of everything these days, be it political affiliations or moral positions. We are drowning in a form of dualism that pits each of us against the other and aggravates every form of difference. This is a lonely way to live and a…
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The No State Solution
More times than I can count, Brown University students, Jewish and non-Jewish, have decried Israel in what they call “a critique of nationalism” or the state system. On the one hand, I agree with their theoretical point: nationalism and the state system are extremely problematic and have resulted in enormous grief, bloodshed, and displacement across…
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What The Holocaust Teaches Us
There are more questions than answers. Perhaps there are no good answers anyway, but we must ask the questions to remain human. Elie Wiesel of blessed memory was the teacher of teachers, our modern day prophet who dared ask questions and dared to admit there are no good answers. His answer was to remember —…
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What We Talk About When We Don’t Talk About The Nakba
In recent weeks, I have been paying particular attention to the arguments in favor of Zionism from those who call themselves progressive Zionists and call for a two-state solution, support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and express criticism of some of Israel’s policies and actions. More precisely, I have been paying attention…
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WATCH: Productive Discomfort: How To Get Better At Supporting Those With Disabilities
When you see a parent with a child who has a cognitive and/or physical disability at your supermarket, playground or synagogue, how do you react? Do you look away or make eye contact? Do you smile and say hello—or move away from them quickly? In the last decade, our synagogues, JCCs, camps and schools have…
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Chronicles of #TheGirlWithTheCancer: Stages of Grief
Stav Meishar, 28 years old, was born and raised in Israel. She is based in New York City where she founded the award-winning organization for creative Jewish education, Dreamcoat Experience. When she’s not shaping the futures of young Jewish minds, she is a stage artist specializing in Circus Arts. Stav’s biggest project at the moment…
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DIY Nail Art Just In Time For Passover
This Passover, try something exciting and new with 10 plagues nail art! The result is bound to impress people at your Seder. Feel free to make your own adaptations to the designs, whether that means choosing different patterns to represent the plagues or using different colors than I did. The sky is the limit for…
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WATCH: In An Unexpected Twist, Westboro Baptist Church Spurs Fundraiser For Jewish Queer Youth
A 38-minute visit of five members of the Westboro Baptist Church three blocks south of Yeshiva University stimulated a discussion on LGBTQ issues within the school’s community, resulting in hundreds of dollars being donated to an organization for Jewish queer youth at risk. The hate group, which targets Jews and LGBTQ people altogether, announced in…
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WATCH: Singing In My First Cultural Seder
A scant two months after my very first performance in Yiddish at the Sholom Aleichem Kultur Tsenter, I was invited to sing at the Yiddish Artists & Friends Actor’s Club Cultural Seder by Khazn Moshe Ber. I was very nervous, as at that point I had only ever performed in Yiddish a couple of times….
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Will AIPAC Speak Out Against Islamophobia?
Last Shabbat I found a letter in my mailbox. The address line said only, “Shabbat Shalom.” I live in the Jewish Culture House at Tufts, and the letter was meant for us. It was from a group of Iranian students. They’d heard about a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States – the overturned…
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