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, Jews — Voting With Your Feet Is Not An Option in the Age of Trump.
Some on the left have long fantasized about moving to Canada if Trump won. However, as John Oliver quipped, the only reason to move to Canada is a) you were born there, ** b)** you’re a goose, and c) it’s springtime. Foot voting is not a solution for democracy. Foot voting is an inherently selfish…
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The Looming Revolution in Jewish American Politics
The election of Donald Trump is an earthquake shaking the foundations of American politics. Established leaders and advocates for change in both the Republican and Democratic parties will be dealing with the aftershocks for years to come. So too this election foreshadows seismic change in Jewish America. For decades, the established leadership of the Jewish…
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All Americans Should Wear a Yellow Badge — and a Crescent One, Too
Donald Trump’s campaign for the White House has given us ample reason to fear what he will do once in office. He has made threats and boasted of being the man to get things done. He has also indicated, if less convincingly, that he can change his mind. We should persuade him to change his…
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5 Glorious Ways to Make Shakshuka
Shakshuka: the ultimate breakfast, the fast and easy lunch, and the surprisingly perfect dinner. If you ever need something comforting and appetizing at any time of the day then this dish of baked eggs in tomato sauce is it! Now let’s shake it up, Shakshuka in Hebrew means a “Shake Up”. Traditional shakshuka starts with…
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How Researchers Uncovered the Gaucher Carrier Rate (Sponsored)
Today, researchers are working on complex problems related to Gaucher disease like finding drugs to treat neurological forms of the disease and understanding its complicated relationship with Parkinson’s disease. But 37 years ago, scientists were struggling to grasp how many people even had Gaucher disease, let alone how many were asymptomatic carriers capable of passing…
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Are Rabbis Who Refuse to Marry Interfaith Couples Hurting Jewish Continuity?
The Cohen Center’s new study, Under the Chuppah: Rabbinic Officiation and Intermarriage, is a game-changer. The dominant narrative about intermarriage for twenty-five years has been that interfaith couples are not Jewishly engaged and don’t raise their children as Jews. The many rabbis who don’t officiate at weddings of interfaith couples for that reason no longer…
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Why Jewish Responses to Trump Make My Job as a Professor So Much Harder
I know your children. I do. After they’ve gone off to college and decided to seek out some Jewish connection, they find their way to my Hebrew literature courses. When they’re trying to understand Israel’s national narrative, they sit expectantly in my classroom and read about Zionist ideology. Most of my students aren’t Jewish, and…
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Just How Many Different Americas Are There?
If you’ve been reading the headlines since the U.S. election it seems like a civil war is brewing. In California and the Northwest they are preparing the “Calexit.” Around the Thanksgiving table people are being disinvited, or moods are cooled. In their “coastal citadels,” as one article called them, people are hunkering down, wondering how…
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What Jacob and Esau Can Teach Us About Loving Our Trump Supporting Friends
I’m acquainted with at least three people who voted for Donald Trump. I’m thinking of these three because of the way I came to know them – as fellow volunteers at a homeless shelter. I met the first many years ago, when we were serving food to homeless children at a Manhattan synagogue. The kids…
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The Cowardly Reasons Jewish Organizations Won’t Speak Out Against Trump Appointees: And Why We Must Demand That They Do
When I learned of Trump’s first round of political appointments, I turned immediately to my community. I knew that the leaders and organizations that have nourished me and been part of my family’s Jewish life would understand the dire call to act. The possibility of white supremacists occupying the White House would surely draw a…
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What the Best Hanukkah Gift Taught Me About The American Left
This year’s overlap of the Jewish and Gregorian calendars has landed Hanukkah directly on top of Christmas. While also inspiring many pithy mashup titles, this has helped illustrate a truth that undercuts one of the polite fictions of Jewish life in America: that Hanukkah would look anything like how we celebrate it today if Christmas…
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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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