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Quarantined college kids find meetups, memes and flirting at Hillel on Facebook
With classes cancelled around the country, Jewish college students are unable to meet their Jewish friends at Hillel for Shabbat dinner, social justice projects or just to hang out. But in less than a week, a virtual community with nearly 8,000 members has emerged to fill that gap: a Facebook group called Zoom University Hillel….
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In Jewish death rituals as in life, coronavirus is changing everything
For many Jews, it is one of the most visceral of rituals: helping shovel the dirt to cover a casket of a loved one. At a recent graveside service, before the stricter limits on public gatherings kicked in, Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner explained a new part of the ritual. “If you are wearing gloves, you can…
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‘I’m increasingly alone’: Coronavirus intensifies isolation for seniors
Six weeks ago, Judith West, who is in her 80s, lost her husband. For any adult, that kind of transition can be isolating and anxiety-inducing. But for West, the loss was exacerbated by the rapid escalation of coronavirus and its associated restrictions. “For me personally, it’s a double whammy,” she said in an interview. “Now,…
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Orthodox doctors plead with community — via viral WhatsApp messages
The voice of Ari Greenwald, an emergency-medicine doctor in Toronto, played on thousands of Orthodox Jews’ smartphones on Wednesday, warning that the novel coronavirus “has been spreading throughout our community like wildfire.” “This virus is so much smarter than all of us,” he said in a voice note that went viral on Orthodox WhatsApp. Greenwald…
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To preserve life, most Orthodox Jews submit, and sacrifice religious life
Hana Cohen’s apartment in Borough Park has a view onto the heavily Orthodox neighborhood’s 12th Avenue thoroughfare. There is a yeshiva, a daycare, a small synagogue, a restaurant. Tuesday, it was business as usual, with class in session and people shopping. Wednesday was different. “Usually there’s kids playing by the street, there’s mothers on the…
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Watch: White House calls Hasidic leaders, asking them to take virus more seriously
An assistant to the president called on rabbis and leaders of the Orthodox community to help reduce gatherings of more than ten people to prevent the spread of coronavirus, according to video and audio recordings sent to the Forward. Religious leaders asked questions on Tuesday about how to safely hold minyanim, including having them outside,…
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From the Forverts archives: Influenza 1918, everyone does the flu their own way
Reading the Forverts in 1918 you’d be forgiven for thinking revolution—rather than an influenza pandemic—was in the air. In June they thrilled to America’s military victory over Germany due to the spread of flu among Germany’s soldiers, not realizing it would make its way here, a viral passenger along for the ride with soldiers returning…
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Notes from the future: A view from New Rochelle, N.Y., where “social distancing” started
America, I know where you are headed, because I’m already there. We in New Rochelle, N.Y., became the experts at social distance, physical distance, early on. A “hot spot” – “New Roch-HELL” – “a problem area” – throw at us whatever you have because we can take it. Here at a forefront of the pandemic,…
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At least 100 test positive for coronavirus in Hasidic Brooklyn neighborhood
At least 100 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Brooklyn’s Hasidic Borough Park neighborhood, amid intense debates within and around such communities over continued gatherings for prayer, study and celebrations like weddings. The news of the outbreak was first reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which cited an official at Asisa, an urgent-care clinic…
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In Jewish Florida, the healthy and the young make it to polls on primary day
It’s primary day in Florida — a day that’s normally full of energy given the Sunshine State’s plum position as one of the most delegate-rich in the union. Instead, the coronavirus was like a mushroom cloud hanging over polling stations, leading many voters and some poll workers to stay home. At my own polling station,…
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Doleful teens leave Israel for computer screens as programs send students home
On Sunday, the participants of Nativ had a choice: stay in Israel, or go home. Yossi Garr, the director for 15 years of this beloved gap-year program in Israel, told the 53 participants and their parents that despite growing restrictions on public life and movement in and out of Israel, Nativ could continue. They could…
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