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.
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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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Why Did Columbia University College Republicans Distribute An Anti-Semitic Cartoon?
On March 18, in an email highlighting the group’s upcoming events, the Columbia University College Republicans announced a panel to address “communism and its negative attributes” — using well-known anti-semitic imagery. The image accompanying the announcement depicts a red octopus suspended over the USSR reaching its long tentacles out onto Europe. The severed arms are…
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This Passover, Remember Those Who Must Go Bread-Free All Year
On Passover, Jewish families around the world will gather around the Seder table to remember the exodus from Egypt. Central to this meal is matzo: We are taught that when we eat this unleavened bread we should remember the rush out of Egypt, during which there was no time to waste waiting for bread to…
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How Living In A Muslim Country Made Me Lose My Faith In Orthodox Judaism
A version of this article originally appeared in Plus 61J, an Australian Jewish publication. I had my greatest revelation about Judaism while studying Arabic in Cairo. I was in the middle of my master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies at St Antony’s College, Oxford. Part of the course requirement was spending the summer learning a…
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Jewish Students Are Organizing To Change Our Country’s Gun Laws
At 10:00 a.m. on March 14th, over 100 kids from my small high school walked out onto a busy street carrying signs with messages like “Arms are for Hugging” to show support for Parkland victims and other gun violence victims. As we walked to the park next to our school, cars honked and drivers raised…
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The Chief Rabbinate’s Monopoly Is Crumbling In Israel — And That’s A Great Thing
Recently Tzohar, a Zionist-Orthodox rabbinic organization, announced their establishment of a private entity to oversee kosher dietary regulations —kashrut— in Israel. The move is another nail in the coffin of the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over religious life, and another important milestone on the way to the separation of religion and state in Israel. The establishment…
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We Need More Women In Office
Many people are surprised to learn that when women run for office, they succeed at the same rate as men; women even win reelection to U.S. Congress at slightly higher rates than their male counterparts. Yet, in the United States just 19.4 percent of members of Congress and 21 percent of Senators are women, and…
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Trump Was Right To Fire Tillerson — But He Did It For All The Wrong Reasons
Rex Tillerson barely made it past a year before he was summarily fired by President Trump. It was more of a beheading than an actual firing, a public humiliation to which hardly any Secretary of State has ever been treated. And no one at the State Department is shedding a tear. Why? Because he was…
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I’m Leaving My Synagogue Of Three Decades — Over J Street
Recently, I wrote in The Forward about how my Conservative East Coast synagogue refused my request to place a postcard about next month’s J Street National Conference on a table advertising communal events. After the article appeared, the Executive Committee asked me to present my argument before them. The committee sat in silence while I…
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Why Are We Still Reciting Ancient Prayers Instead Of Our Own?
If you wanted to express your deep and all-consuming love for another person, would you do so using the words of a famous poet, or would you choose to communicate your own unique thoughts with words never previously uttered by anyone else? Your own words might be less artful, but they would surely be more…
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What Our Congregation Learned On Our Civil Rights Pilgrimage
Last month, a group from Temple Israel of Northern Westchester embarked on a civil rights pilgrimage to the South. We visited key historic sites in Atlanta, Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma and Memphis, hearing from people who were part of the struggle for justice and meeting with others who continue it today. Our goal was to better…
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I Learned To Shoot An Assault Rifle — At My Jewish Youth Group
We’re living in an extraordinary moment when teens are leading the country in a long overdue conversation about gun control. The social justice oriented Jewish youth movement in which I grew up, NFTY, has courageously taken up the cause of gun violence prevention. NFTY is mobilizing thousands of teens across the country by busing them…
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