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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Dodgers 2020: The thrill of victory – and the agony of injustice
As a longtime Dodgers fan, I’m thrilled that they won their first World Series in 32 years. But the victory is somewhat bittersweet because, despite the players’ remarkable triumph on the field and their camaraderie as teammates, I can’t ignore the reality that Major League Baseball in general, and the Dodgers in particular, remains rife…
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When a shiva is cut short
Shiva, the traditional Jewish mourning period for close relatives, is normally seven days long. It makes sense that shiva should be seven days. Seven (shiva in Hebrew) is a number with special significance in Judaism. The seven-branched menorah, a symbol of Judaism since ancient times. The seven times a bride circles the groom at the…
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Inside a forgotten camera, a time capsule
After my father – a Holocaust survivor — passed away in 1991 I found an old leather valise he had brought with him from Germany. Inside were hundreds of still photographs he had taken right after liberation with a Leica IIIc. They included scenes around Germany; in particular, Lubeck, where I was born in 1949….
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After the murder of a French teacher, an 18th century play teaches tolerance
On Friday, an 18-year-old Chechen immigrant beheaded a history teacher just outside his school near Paris for the crime of showing his class caricatures of the prophet Muhammad in a course about freedom of expression. Just two weeks ago, after two people were stabbed in a different terrorist incident, President Macron gave a long-anticipated, lengthy…
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How to honor Rabin’s legacy
These remarks are drawn from a commemoration that Americans for Peace Now organized in memory of Yitzhak Rabin’s 25 year yarzheit. There are moments in history that first devastate us and then compel us to recommit to the struggle for justice. The murder of Martin Luther King. The murder of Mahatma Ghandi. The murder of…
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We know mail-in voting. It’s a season, not a day.
An open letter to our rabbinic colleagues and the American Jewish community: This is a consequential election. Not only in the stark difference between the two major Presidential candidates, but also because of the pandemic, as a result of which the how and when of voting is different. More people are voting early and more…
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Why I’m risking a $15,000 fine by hosting a yeshiva in our basement
Editor’s note: The author of this essay insisted on anonymity, and that his neighborhood not be specified, because he is violating city and state social-distancing guidelines and risking a hefty fine. We nonetheless felt the piece was important and interesting enough to deepen readers’ understanding. Sounds of Shema Yisrael reverberated through my house, keeping my…
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I’m a doctor, but I’m not mad at the Orthodox
In stark contrast to the impression left by legions of news reports about Haredi Jews in Brooklyn defying public health rules around the coronavirus, I have found over years of working with ultra-Orthodox communities in New York and Jerusalem that members of these communities care deeply about health. Haredi communities have their own system of…
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When conversations with friends can have real power
It can often feel pointless to talk about politics with someone who disagrees with you; it can lead to a heated argument in which neither side budges. Especially with friends and family, many people opt to avoid the conversation to protect the relationship. But those conversations are the most impactful. Below, Jonah Sanderson, a rabbinic…
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In the story of Noah, a model of partnership with God
The Torah inherited a Mesopotamian cultural consensus that a Great Deluge had wiped out almost all of humanity. In the Gilgamesh epic, the gods (Anu and Enlil) inflict this catastrophe arbitrarily in a display of their power, but later defend their actions both as deserved punishment and designed to curb population growth. According to the…
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Embracing Plan B: Why Bronfman is deciding now not to have its 2021 summer program in Israel
Summer Israel experiences can be transformative opportunities for American Jewish teens, and those of us who spend all year making these experiences as incredible as possible have been wrestling with the looming question mark that is the summer of 2021. One colleague, reluctant to reimagine the popular Israel trip they run, remarked at a recent…
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