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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Even Zoombombing can’t take away from the importance of civil rights education
Jewish schools must prioritize Jews of color. By recognizing there is a rainbow of diversity within the Jewish community, schools can be places where students become advocates and allies working closely with Jews of color to ensure they feel welcomed and supported. Yet unfortunately, the reality is that many Jews of color feel marginalized and…
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The banality of systemic racism
In considering the Holocaust, Hannah Arendt wrote of the “banality of evil”, the notion that evil comes not only from a person with a gun but also from those who uphold systems and structures which enable that person. Most Germans never killed a Jew themselves. Most never shattered a window on Kristallnacht, or turned their…
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An obituary for God
A few weeks ago, the New York Times marked the horrible milestone of 100,000 Americans’ deaths from COVID by printing the identities of 1,000 of the dead. It filled every inch of the front page with nothing but their names. Each name was accompanied by the person’s age and what I call a “microbituary”: a…
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A funeral is not so different from a wedding; both are love stories
In its own way, a funeral, like a wedding, is also a love story. Both involve a ceremonial expression of devotion. But sometimes the love displayed in funerals has been more tested, and thus seems of greater depth. In most cases, it has weathered storms. It has probably been ruptured at some point, and perhaps…
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7 Ways Jewish-Latinx people can fight anti-Black racism today
This piece was first published here on Wednesday, June 3rd as a resource for Jewtina y Co.’s Jewish-Latinx community members. After the social media campaigns end, how do we, as Jewish-Latino/xs, keep the momentum going to create systemic change against racism and anti-Black violence? The first place we need to start is within our own…
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Are Jews white? Comfort in ambiguity is the answer
There’s something simultaneously ironic, funny, sad and fascinating when a student messages me asking if they are white. Now this isn’t, of course, a question about physical colors, in which I’m no expert; any of my peers will attest to the fact that I wasn’t blessed with an eye for color schemes. Rather, they are…
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Protection in a pandemic: “Nothing bad can happen to you when you are wearing a hamsa”
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times!” Oddly enough it was a man that coined that phrase, but it is the women bearing children that bid it true. After all, what is more of a contradiction than the careful nurturing of a tiny being inside you for 9 months, with…
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‘We are scouts into a world of racism and police abuse’
This week in synagogues throughout the world, Jews will read Parashat Sh’lach L’cha, the story of the scouts sent by Moses into the land of Canaan. The scouts, representing each of the 12 tribes, were sent to gather information and return to advise the people on what to expect. After 40 days, they return to…
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Why is it so easy to fear those different from ourselves?
Human life is so sacred that Jewish tradition is famously reticent about criminal punishment in general and capital punishment in particular. Thus, Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva said, “If we would have been on the Sanhedrin, no one would ever have been executed” (Mishnah Makkot 1:17). To be tried criminally, Jewish law requires that a…
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Today is the anniversary of Operation Wedding, Soviet Jews’ daring hijack attempt
Fifty years ago today, on June 15, 1970, a small group led by Yosef Mendelevich, Mark Dymshits, Eduard Kuznetsov and Sylva Zalmanson attempted to steal a Soviet plane and fly it to freedom in an endeavor known as Operation Wedding. While the operation was foiled by the Soviet KGB secret police, leading to long prison…
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About those Confederate idols
In chapter 12 of Deuteronomy, the Torah’s zero-tolerance policy regarding idolatry is revealed. And ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. Deuteronomy 12:3…
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