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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‘Is there a more dread-filled psalm than Psalm 88?’ Finding meaning in the trauma of this moment
Is there a more dread-filled psalm than Psalm 88? In this relatively little-known work, the Bible manages to capture perfectly the isolation and misery of those whose lives are upended by illness. In our current coronavirus crisis the ancient words take on new resonance. If you’ve been suffering with COVID-19 or are terrified for a…
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Judaism is familiar with Great Pauses — but this one is different
There is nothing good about the coronavirus Great Pause. Full stop. But there may be an opportunity to do some good while we are trapped within it. On top of the health and economic toll it is taking, I am seeing firsthand the deep spiritual price being exacted from my children. For one daughter, this…
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A wave from the window
Last week, Sherri, the “escapades-to-go” coordinator from my parents’ assisted-living facility, emailed to ask if our family would like to be part of a “get out of the car and wave to the window” event. To me, waving to my parents through a window did not sound like much of an escapade, but given that…
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Yisroel Horowitz, 72, Talmud scholar with a mischevous smile
Covid 19 has been brutal to my birth community, the Ultra-Orthodox communities from Brooklyn and Upstate New York. The virus has been relentless. Every day brings a list of new chareidi victims. I know almost all of them, to one degree or another. They are former friends, neighbors, acquaintances, or people who are otherwise well-known…
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My biography of the world’s greatest Yiddish encyclopedia
My parents spoke Yiddish, read Yiddish, and sang songs in Yiddish. But they were not ideological Yiddishists. I absorbed Yiddish aurally, but it held no interest for me. It wasn’t until I was married and moved to the Amalgamated Houses in the Bronx — founded in the 1920s by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Union, whose…
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Poem | The space between us
Yes, the space between us is scary. It is odd and at odds, an area unoccupied where all things exist. But the space between us is also liminal, a threshold between old and new. * And so, in this space anything is possible: to grow without gathering, to connect without congregating, to create without convening….
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On Yom HaZikaron, a glimpse into the tragedy and patriotism of Israel’s fallen soldiers
Israelis and Zionists around the world will mark Yom HaZikaron, this year starting on the evening of April 27. Yom HaZikaron LeHalalei Ma’arakhot Israel ul’Nifge’ei Pe’ulot HaEivah, literally: Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism. This is Israel’s Memorial Day, and it is not celebrated with barbecues but with tears…
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How I finally came to appreciate virtual Shabbat
Recently, I did two things I thought I would not ever be doing. I actually took time to read an article about why synagogues need to consider “virtual gatherings” during the current COVID-19 crisis, but at the same time the article emphasized that Jews should be sure to understand “what it means to come together…
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On Yom HaZikaron, Israelis and Palestinians grieve — together
Even as countries close their borders, the coronavirus pandemic has shown us just how much we are all in this together, demanding cooperation within and between countries. Here too, another form of unusual cooperation has been going on, even in these times of lock down, and it is cooperation between ostensible enemies. Combatants for Peace,…
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Like Moses, we carry our brokenness with us
I yelled. I really yelled. It was the middle of Passover, coming off a 72-hour Yom Tov and Shabbat span during Minnesota’s Stay-at-Home order, and I was out of patience. I just could not figure out how to get through to my daughter who just would not stop protesting at bedtime, spiraling. I felt terrible…
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The handshake is dead. Long live the…
I think I am in the minority here, but I happen to love to shake hands. The night before I left for college, my dad taught me how in our suburban New Jersey kitchen. “O.K., so what if the college president introduces himself to you? You need a good handshake,” he advised. “Look him right…
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