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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Making the broken whole again this Rosh Hashanah
I will never forget reading, some years ago, a moving story of a group of Holocaust survivors who were members of a synagogue in New Jersey. Prior to the High Holidays, they decided that they wanted to make a unique contribution to the congregation. They took the yellow stars of David which they still possessed…
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Why California Jews are backing Prop. 15
California is engaged in a David versus Goliath battle over wealth and inequality and a growing army of Jews is joining the crusade to slay the corporate giant. The battleground is Proposition 15, a statewide measure known as “Schools and Communities First” (SCF) that would increase property taxes on the state’s largest corporations and raise…
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The UAE-Israel signing is history in the making? I’m not so sure.
Let’s examine the idea that the magnitude of what took place Sept. 15 on the White House lawn — signing historic agreements between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain — is such that American Jews should consider voting for President Donald Trump in November after all. Two peace deals in a day! Now that is a…
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Take it from a Palestinian: The Abraham Accords reward human rights abuses
People around the world are proclaiming an end to an era of conflict. Two Arabian monarchs have signed a peace deal with an Israeli prime minister. The American president now deserves a Nobel peace prize for facilitating this landmark agreement, right? Wrong. What are the Abraham Accords but a publicity stunt designed to reward Israel…
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My degree in Israel education was tough, but so worth it
I just ran a marathon. I have never run a marathon, so I have no idea what that actually feels like. But this certainly feels like what I imagine completing a marathon could feel like: elation, pride, and fatigue. My marathon lasted two years, not your typical 26.2 miles. That was 24 months filled with…
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Look at this Rosh Hashanah as a bespoke experience
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the most highly choreographed religious experiences across all Jewish denominations, from intimate shteibels to vaulted sanctuaries. The setting, songs, and community surrounding us combine to impart a sense of occasion and are key to the experience of awe and holiness of the High Holidays. The physical setting is a…
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Do talk politics with family this election
Watching the flames in California along with the destruction of lives and livelihoods in Kenosha, it suddenly hit me that we can either grow together or burn together. I say this as both a Holocaust-traumatized Jew and as a family therapist. Seeing fear in the faces of children most days in my practice on Zoom…
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This High Holiday season, we are in charge
Every year, I look forward to High Holidays: the blasts of the shofar and the uplifting Tikatevu chant on Rosh Hashanah, the cantor’s recitation of Kol Nidre as she moves slowly in white kittel through the crowded temple until she prostrates herself at the foot of the bimah, the Tashlikh on the ocean beach, and…
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To save Palestinian lives, Jews, Christians and Muslims unite
For the first time ever, Muslims, Jews and Christians in Greater Washington are uniting around a mission of saving Palestinian lives and supporting Israelis and Palestinians who are committed to working together for the benefit of all. Since the beginning of June, our congregations, the All-Dulles Area Muslim Society, Temple Rodef Shalom and St. John’s…
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This Rosh Hashanah is for ‘Bad Jews’
What does it mean to be a “Bad Jew?” Ask this to a Jewish community and you’ll get lots of answers –– more likely as confessions than accusations. In any Jewish community, I’ve found people have leaped at the opportunity to blame themselves: they will tell you, over and over, that they’re “Bad Jews”: that…
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Holocaust education is more relevant than ever
Two years ago, I visited the National Memorial to Truth & Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, had just opened the site two weeks before. As I watched other visitors walk around the large blocks, inscribed with the names of Black citizens lynched by white people, I was…
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