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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Working together helped these Jewish day schools adapt to the pandemic
In Jewish life, the Hebrew word kehillah, meaning congregation or community, bears immeasurable significance. So much of Jewish practice is based on coming together as a kehillah, and connecting in a meaningful way with family and friends in both good and bad times. Central to any kehillah are three foundational pillars – family, education and…
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Kareem Abdul Jabbar speaks truth to Blacks and Jews
Reading the press, watching the news, and surfing the countless Internet outlets for the latest headlines has become a depressing undertaking. From craven enablers of President Donald Trump, to depressing COVID-19 statistics, to bleak economic data there is precious little to be inspired by. Even our national pastime, a traditional source of heroes, has a…
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This Tisha B’Av, the Hagia Sophia teaches us about reclaiming sacred spaces
When the Roman Emperor, Justinian I, dedicated Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia as a cathedral, he is said to have proclaimed, “Solomon, I have surpassed thee.” Indeed, the church-turned mosque-turned museum is an architectural wonder of the world, a gem that inspires devotion. Understandably, therefore, faithful Muslims were distraught when in 1934 Ataturk secularized the mosque. How…
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Why do we commemorate times of destruction?
All of this heaviness that we, as Americans, have been feeling in recent months is exacerbated by where we, as Jews, find ourselves in the calendar year. As we enter the heat of summer, we land in the scorching energy of two Jewish commemorations: The Seventeenth of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av (the 9th of Av)….
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This Tisha B’Av, remember John Lewis
It’s Tisha B’av – the darkest day in the Jewish calendar. We remember the destruction. We mourn the loss of the First and Second Temples. We recall Crusades and pogroms that happened on this same day in years gone by. And each year, after the fasting and the mourning of Tisha B’av, comes Shabbat. This…
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The personal is political on Tisha B’Av
I didn’t talk to my roommate for an entire year. I was in 11th grade, at a Yeshiva where the students lived in dormitories on campus. Early in the school year, Sruli and I got into a fight. We were taking turns on a handheld electronic football game we had borrowed from a friend and,…
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Camp on Zoom is still pretty fun, it turns out
Read this article in Yiddish. When my family and hundreds of others got the email from SAR Academy back in March, telling us that all classes were cancelled after a student tested positive for Covid-19, most of us were just excited that we were getting a day off of school. Little did we know that…
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Socially distanced mental healthcare has its pros for clients and providers alike
I remember sitting in graduate school classes and feeling like The Ugly Duckling. I was twenty-one and was going to become a social worker; my peers were mostly on their second degrees, or had prior work experience but they all had one thing in common—they weren’t afraid to speak their minds. In classes, I was…
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Jewish messianic belief has inspired hope for generations
How, in a global pandemic, can we look forward to the future with hope? Faith in a better future lies at the heart of the Bible, starting with God’s covenant with the children of Israel. In these intensely uncertain times, the history of Jewish hope that has been built on those foundations offers a rich…
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I’m a Zionist. Here’s why I protested in L.A. against annexation
I protested in front of the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles last Sunday. I never thought that I would do that. In doing so I allied myself with the thousands of Israelis who have been rallying in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his annexation plan. Just like them, I support…
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Volunteering with refugees in Tel Aviv made me passionate about activism in the US
On the night before my first day of volunteering at Mesila (a center for refugees and migrant workers in Shapira, South Tel Aviv), I typed in the address to Google Maps only to discover that my volunteering location was right around the corner, less than a minute away from my apartment. This convenience was no…
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