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 Do Jews Owe Crown Heights?
In 2012, Hannah Roodman endeavored to show Crown Heights, Brooklyn through the eyes of its Chabad and West Indian residents. In the years since she directed Project 2×1, she’s had time to reflect on the changing neighborhood and our responsibilities as young Jews. “My hope was that the Crown Heights Jewish community would acknowledge that…
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Introducing PROTOCOLS
We are living in a moment of uncanny crisis. Right-wing populism and reactionary fascism once again threaten to spread the malignant violence of the West — never neutralized, never contained, never eradicated. Old wars — wars of heteropatriarchy, of racial capitalism, of environmental degradation — persist and appear in new, dangerous forms. And Jews find…
The Latest
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Students For Justice In Palestine Relies On A Network Of Hate
For years, the anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has presented itself as an “independent grassroots organization” that supports justice and human rights while opposing all forms of bigotry. Their recently leaked SJP Divestment Handbook, however, reveals that SJP relies heavily on outside political groups — and often, ones that actively promote hate….
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The Weaponization Of International Law To Delegitimize Israel
The weaponization of international law against Israel has become the default position of many in the international community. Over the last 50 years, legitimate criticism of Israel has morphed into anti-Semitism a targeting that no other nation endures. Israel’s European friends have turned into adversaries, and even some American administrations have adopted a narrative in…
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Jews Critiquing Pence’s Holocaust Memorial Tweet Need To Brush Up On The Bible
Back in college, a rabbi of mine shared a story from a talk on the story of Joseph he gave to unaffiliated Jewish retirees. After the rabbi spoke at length about the biblical narrative and his brothers’ trials and tribulations in Egypt, an older woman raised her hand. “So, when did Joseph end up meeting…
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Mike Pence Gave The Best Pro-Israel Speech Ever
In his historic speech to the Knesset in Jerusalem, Vice-President Mike Pence reaffirmed American recognition that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, described the Jewish people’s 3,000-year-old unbreakable bond with Jerusalem, stated that the US will transfer the US Embassy to Jerusalem by the end of 2019, thereby having chosen “fact over fiction,” called upon Mahmoud Abbas’…
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Caitlyn Jenner Is A Champion For Israel — And Jewish Values
The foremost goal of Israel’s enemies is to defame, delegitimize, and destroy the Jewish state. They seek to make Israel hated by the world with false accusations of human-rights abuses when precisely the opposite is true. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and the only country with full religious and press freedoms…
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This Holocaust Remembrance Day, Will Trump Remember The Jews?
Dear President Trump, This year, will you remember the Jews? Last year, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a newly inaugurated President Trump spoke vaguely of “victims, survivors [and] heroes,” of “the darkest hours” and “the powers of good.” For reasons difficult to divine, his statement didn’t mention the Jewish people. In a world where Jews…
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Hitler’s Secret Weapon Was Silence
Silence is complicity. Hearing those words recently, it felt like an echo from a time long ago and far away. A time when people were afraid to speak up, afraid to rock the boat, afraid to be singled out. Eighty years ago, as we recall today on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Europe was in the…
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Forward Readers Share Their Family Holocaust Survival Stories
Hilda and Harry Eisen 1917-2017 1917-2012 Izbica Kujawska, Poland to Beverly Hills, California “Harry and Hilda Eisen were both born in 1917, in the Polish village of Izbica-Kujawska. They grew up together. After they returned from the horrors of the war—Harry from Auschwitz and other concentration camps, and Hilda from the Parczew forest Partisans —…
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Meet the Reality Star Preserving The Jews’ Couture Clothing — And Judaica
John Mahdessian, give us some background on your company, Madame Paulette: For more than 58 years, my third generation, family owned business has been acclaimed as the leader in cleaning, tailoring, restoration, and preservation; patronized by renowned Jewish designers such as Isaac Mizrahi, Donna Karan, and Ralph Lauren; celebrities like Jerry Seinfeld, Kate Hudson and…
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Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
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Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
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Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
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