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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What It’s Like To Wear A Big Old Yarmulke In Small-Town America
On Wednesday, November 9, 2016, I decided to wear my kippah full time. It was the day after America elected Trump and I decided I needed to make a religious and political statement to my fellow citizens to make them more sensitive to a minority. So I did. This is what I’ve learned in the…
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These Four Conflicting Visions Will Determine Israel’s Future
Israel is a success story on many levels — social, economic, scientific, and in terms of protecting its security. Nevertheless, many of its citizens see the country as treading water. What is the source of this dissonance? In Israel’s cultural war, one community’s dream is another community’s nightmare. But if we are capable of pushing…
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Why Israel’s Happiest Day Is Really Bittersweet
One of the most interesting concepts in Judaism to me is that all good things are bittersweet. For every triumph, there are roadblocks; for every celebration, there are sacrifices. It’s for this reason that at a Jewish wedding, the happiest day of a couple’s life, the chatan (groom) stamps on glass under the chuppah (wedding…
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I’m A Hasidic Father And My Community Is Failing Our Children
This holy Passover eve, New York politics produced the most astonishing scene imaginable. As Josh Nathan-Kazis reported in the Forward, Cuomo Called The Rebbe. The Rebbe Prayed To God. The Budget Deal Got Done.. The state senator from South Brooklyn, perhaps the most powerful elected representative of Orthodox Jewry, exercised his well-honed kingmaking authority to…
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How Renowned Conductor Toscanini Defied The Nazis — And Paid A Price
In the space of 24 hours, the Jewish world saw a singular exhibition of political cowardice that may endanger the lives of unfortunate refugees. After seeking to deport thousands of Africans from Sudan and Eritrea who fled for their lives to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the United Nations reached a compromise. Half the…
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We’re Jewish Harvard Students — And We Were Arrested Last Week Over Israel
Last week, we were arrested for participating in a sit-in outside the Israeli Consulate. Two days later, we hosted an anti-occupation seder at Harvard Hillel. The same week, young Jews in New York shut down Senator Schumer’s office, Jews in the Twin Cities closed the local offices of the Jewish Community Relations Council, and across…
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Here’s How To Eat Homemade Challah And Still Lose Weight
Most of us are still recovering from Passover and its days of potatoes, matzo and endless multi-course meals. Many made resolutions to cleanse, diet and lose those pounds before Shavuot comes, and with it cheesecake and pastas galore. Tanya Zuckerbrot MS, RD, a NYC-based Registered Dietitian, bestselling author of The F-Factor Diet and creator of…
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The Incredible Story Of Einstein And The Orthodox Rabbi Who Saved The Boys Of Buchenwald
73 years ago today on April 11, 1945, United States forces liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. Among the liberators was one man whose little-known story can teach our world how to respond to the hundreds of thousands of traumatized, stateless refugees today. I discovered this man by accident. Five years ago I stumbled upon a poignant…
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Will The Holocaust Be Remembered 100 Years From Now?
It’s been 73 years since the end of the Holocaust. Most survivors are no longer here. My generation, the second generation, is getting older. We are transitioning from short term to long term memory. Indeed, the test of memory is not how we recall soon after an event, but how it is recalled long, long…
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Dear Fellow Jewesses: Please Don’t Get Sucked In By Fad Diets
As summer approaches, new diet fads are yet again circulating in the Jewish community. My Facebook and Instagram feed are filled with diet posts promising to help me become “Happy and Healthy for your Beach Body.” These posts are often connected to multi-level marketing pyramid schemes designed to rob you of your time and money….
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These Children Didn’t Survive The Holocaust, But Their Art Still Gives Me Hope
At first glance, the drawings made me smile. Small, confident hands had etched them, in haphazard strokes; colors crossed the rainbow spectrum, and people looked less like humans than like blobs. They reminded me of my childhood, of my cousins, of the kids I babysit. But then I stepped closer to the glass cases and…
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