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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Dozens Gather In D.C To Celebrate New Yiddish Translation of Blume Lempel’s Work
On Sunday afternoon, January 8, more than 80 people attended a reading and celebration in Washington, D.C., honoring the publication of a new book of translations of 24 stories by the remarkable Yiddish writer Blume Lempel (1907-1999). The event was held at Politics and Prose, a well-known Washington bookstore where President Obama and other Washington…
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TavTech: Launching The Next Generation Of The Startup Nation
A hackathon is popularly defined as “an event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming.” When 40 student fellows from 9 nationalities, 26 fields of study, 6 elite universities, and 5 religious affiliations come together to brainstorm, build and pitch software in 4 days,…
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What We Stand For at Repair the World
I haven’t (yet) seen Hamilton. Like many, I’ve heard the soundtrack and recently was reminded of a lyric from the show: “If you stand for nothing, Burr, what will you fall for?” “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Turns out, that quote likely didn’t originate with Alexander Hamilton. Whomever said it…
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The Dark History of Jews And The Olympics
A version of this piece originally appeared in Plus61J. Jews and The Olympics have hardly been the best of friends, despite the disproportionately high Jewish tally of some 360 medals since the start of the Modern Games in 1896. Not out of a love of sport did Baron Pierre de Coubertin resurrect the ancient Olympics:…
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Why Diaspora Jews Must Call Out Israeli Injustice
Last March, in my grandmother’s living room in the north of Israel, I was watching the evening news with my family. At the top of the hour, that night’s lead story came on, and the television screen filled with a grainy video from B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group. The footage was clear: an Israeli…
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The Frayed Moral Fiber of Israel
Living in Israel is like living on the edge of a precipice. Every morning we turn on the radio to a new and earth shattering piece of news. It seems that we cannot survive without the constant adrenaline of drama. Each day brings with it yet another story of corruption, violence, and unconfirmed gossip. Sgt….
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President Obama’s Jewish Hope
Through family connections and a stroke of luck, I was able to attend the 2016 White House Hanukkah party – the final such event for the Obamas. The White House Hanukkah Party is, simply put, an unbelievably odd event. The entire Presidential compound is presented in its Christmas morning attire –- with the exception of…
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Beyond Hummus: 5 Foods You Absolutely Must Eat in Israel (Sponsored)
So you’re going to Israel, and you love hummus, and you love falafel, and you can’t wait to eat a lot of hummus and falafel, and your cousin’s uncle’s sister-in-law knows the best place for hummus and falafel, and so on. Although this may be difficult to imagine, there may come a moment when some…
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Rethinking Orthodoxy in Trump’s America
David Weiss Halivni, a renowned Talmudic scholar, once quipped that he could not pray with the people with whom he talked, and could not talk with the people with whom he prayed. In other words, those with whom he could talk – who could discuss religious ideas beyond accepted norms – insisted on living the…
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To Fight Radical Islamic Terror, Europe Must Move From Gestures To Action
Brandenburg Gate, one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world, once the scene of mass Nazi rallies, emblazoned with swastika flags, was this week lit up with the flag of the Jewish State of Israel. Who would have thought in their lifetime, or even in the space of eighty years, this would ever happen?…
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Is the Jewish Body Fit for Sports?
A version of this piece originally appeared in Plus61J. Jews can’t fight, fence, ride, run or swim. That was the conventional wisdom of earlier centuries. By contrast, some time in the 1930s, the Russian–Jewish writer Isaac Emannuilovich Babel, a one-time Cossack (in an administrative capacity) alerted his readers: ‘beware a Jew on horseback’. So which…
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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 This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
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Fast Forward Meet Lev Kreitman, who brought down Tel Aviv shooter and survived Nova music festival on Oct. 7
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Fast Forward Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff plant a pomegranate tree for Oct. 7 victims
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Forverts in English How can Jews committed to Yiddish culture call a massacre of Jews ‘resistance’?
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Fast Forward Suspect arrested in U of Michigan rabbi’s home robbery, with no evidence of antisemitic intent
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Opinion A year after Oct. 7, will Israel choose the way of peace, or that of religious nationalism?
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