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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The Moral Future of Kosher Meat
“Campers Receive a Hands-On Lesson in the Tradition of Kosher Slaughter” reads the title of a recent New York Times article reporting on the religious slaughter and hand processing of 120 quails, partridges and ducks at a highly regarded wilderness-themed Jewish summer camp. The article opens by describing the campers holding the birds just before…
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Adapting ‘Boy Books’ and ‘Girl Books’ for a Progressive, Yiddish-Speaking Family
In my latest blog post, I complained about the gendered struggles I face, as a liberal Yiddish-speaking father, while reading and singing Yiddish children’s books and songs to my son. On one hand, I’m faced with a mother-oriented literature that erases my own lived experience as a father who changes diapers, cooks meals, brings his…
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Idle Retirement? Not at the JCC!
Retirement was looming large on my horizon; filling me with equal measures of joy, dread, and uncertainty. My youthful idealism, which had lain dormant under bills, ills, and life’s many spills, started to resurface. My connection to the larger Jewish community, tenuous, and sporadic at best, seemed to be pulling me closer. I was looking…
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Black Lives Matter. And Words Do, Too.
Black lives matter. This is a statement of fundamental truth that should go without saying. Yet because of the systemic racism and violence that continues to oppress people of color in the United States and around the world on the basis of their skin color, it must be said loudly, clearly and repeatedly, without caveat….
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Creating a Minyan of Comfort
Attending a shiva call (comforting a Jewish mourner) is one of the most meaningful acts of condolence. In Judaism, we are taught that when a member of our community feels the pain of loss, we are obligated to be there to provide comfort and solace. Each shiva is different, depending on the traditions and beliefs…
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Why American Jewish Historians Aren’t Giving Up On Israel
Ysoscher Katz, in his Aug 3 article “We Won’t Give Up On Israel, Even If American Historians Do,” bemoans that American Jewish historians are jumping ship in regards to Israel as a Zionist and democratic entity. He is referring to Hasia Diner’s and Marjorie Feld’s Aug 1 opinion article in Haaretz, “We’re American Jewish Historians….
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The Olympics is Based on Bad Ideals. Judaism Has a Better Option
Here’s something dictatorships, economics and the Olympics all have in common: each projects the notion that strength, agility, and efficiency define human worth. There’s a corollary to that shared vision, too. In each of these systems, the less strong are automatically second class. After Gold, there’s just Silver, Bronze, spectator, and pariah. There’s nowhere to…
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Family Camp Brings Back the Summer Magic
After a summer of excited letters mailed home from sleep-away camp and hours spent clicking through hundreds of daily pictures of boating, sports and culinary arts, so many of our parents tell us, “I wish I could go to camp!” When we tell them they can, their faces light up like kids making their first…
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The Government of Israel Is Making Arab Citizens a Priority. Are We?
The government of Israel has begun implementation on the biggest plan ever developed to close economic gaps between the country’s Jewish majority and Arab minority. If the plan succeeds, within five years, thousands more Arab engineers will be integrated into the hi-tech sector; Arab students will increase from 13% to 17% of Israel’s undergraduates; informal…
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Viennese Jewish Women Are Uniting to Aide Muslim Refugees
Elias Canetti was walking along the banks of the Danube when he spotted a large rectangular object in the middle of the road. As he got closer to inspect it he realized it was a train wagon, eerily parked on the train tracks, full of people. He asked his companion about it. “Refugees” he said…
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The Growing Allure of Chabad and Hillel
Lifelong Conservative Jew David Sussman walked into a Westport Inn meeting hall in 2001 and took his first steps on a new Jewish path. Inside the Westport, Connecticut, inn was a tiny community of followers of the Hasidic Chabad Lubavitch synagogue. Sussman, then 33, was one of 12 community members in the room, six of…
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