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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‘Letters To My Palestinian Neighbor’ Is Not The Book We Need Right Now
Dear Yossi, You and I worked together very briefly at the Shalom Hartman Institute. We only interacted a few times, so I’m not sure you remember me. But, unlike your imaginary interlocutor in your book “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor,” you do actually exist and there’s at least a slight chance that you’ll read and…
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Prison Is No Place For The Elderly — Even Paul Manafort
Paul Manafort is in hell tonight. I know because I was there too. I was 60 years old when I entered prison; Paul Manafort entered jail as a senior at age 69. It is frightening to be locked up the first time, knowing the nightmare is just beginning. People applauded Paul Manafort’s arrest. Most of…
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Don’t Mourn For Reform Judaism Just Yet
It is both shocking and predictable that in such a turbulent week, one of the most depressing, cynical, Holocaust-referencing articles of the week was written by a rabbi about the state of progressive Judaism. In his article “Paying the Price for Abandoning Jewish Peoplehood,” Rabbi Clifford Librach gleefully skewers Reform Judaism with one hand while…
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As A Jew Without A Synagogue, Chicago Dyke March Is My Shul
As a Jew without a synagogue, Chicago Dyke March is my shul. Like many young Jews today, I have had difficulty finding a Jewish spiritual space that matches my Jewish values, commitment to social justice and complex list of identities. I am a genderqueer trans woman, a femme dyke, a vocal lesbian, a proud, practicing…
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Cutting Reproductive Healthcare Hurts Women — And Rejects Jewish Teaching
When I go to my doctor, I worry about many things. Will they find anything new or worrisome? Will I have to suffer through a painful shot? Will they realize I don’t floss? I have never worried whether or not my doctor was using the full range of their knowledge to advise and treat me…
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Is It Ever Appropriate To Compare Modern Crises To The Holocaust?
In the United States, we’re currently facing a crisis: Trump’s latest policy move has resulted in thousands of children being separated from their families and kept in large cages. While it’s undeniable that the situation is terrible, there’s a debate in the Jewish community about whether or not it’s appropriate to compare the atrocities in…
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Jews Have A Moral Obligation To Support Refugees
Nobody wants to be a refugee. To be forced from your home, your family, all that is familiar. No one wants to be one of the 1,995 children separated from their families at the border because of a most inhumane policy. Every minute, 20 people must flee their land because of terror, war or persecution,…
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What The Bible Really Says About Refugees
On June 16, 1967, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel sent a telegram to President John F. Kennedy proposing the president declare a “state of moral emergency” as a response to the ongoing racial injustices in the United States. “The hour calls for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity,” Heschel proclaimed. A religious person must feel the pain…
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Is The Shadowy Lobbyist In This New York Times Op-ed Wearing A Yarmulke?
A straightforward New York Times op-ed is causing some serious debate online — not for the words its author penned, but for the image plastered across it. In print, the article was titled, “Will We Ever Drain The Swamp?” and featured a shadowy unregistered lobbyist wearing… a yarmulke? You guys am I being paranoid or…
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Jews And Arabs Can Break Bread Together — So Why Can’t We Talk About The Conflict?
Last week, I sat with my students and colleagues at an exceptional student-led Iftar, the festive evening meal that breaks the Ramadan fast. Looking around at the mixed tables and watching everyone genuinely enjoy themselves over food (which was glatt mehadrin kosher food to accommodate Orthodox students and teachers), music and conversation, despite the longstanding…
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Like The Holocaust, Family Separation In The U.S. Will Scar Generations To Come
As a member of several second-generation Holocaust survivor groups, I’ve become used to posts evoking strong reactions. The most controversial posts quickly devolve into emotional debates about who is “more Jewish” or whether Jews who fled Germany and Poland before 1939 can be called Holocaust “survivors.” But I have never seen a more mean-spirited, divisive…
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