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The loneliest Shabbat: Bracing for another holy day in quarantine
Vera Koppel, 84-year old Holocaust survivor and resident of New Rochelle, is something of a local community organizer. She was born in Budapest, moved to the United States after the 1956 Hungarian revolution, and today is an active member of the Young Israel of New Rochelle, where she runs the “Ruach” weekly group for senior…
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Shabbat services go virtual as governors across U.S. ban large gatherings
Synagogues across the country have taken steps to limit Shabbat services and other religious events after governors of three of the states with the largest Jewish populations announced bans on large gatherings. View an updated list of streaming services here. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a ban on gatherings of 500 or more…
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In containment zone around synagogue, National Guard serves amid eerie stillness
New Rochelle High School was almost lifeless on Thursday. A school normally filled with more than 3,000 students was empty, the front gates tightly shut with a chain and a lock. But around the back of the school was a sign of life that is emblematic of these strange times — men and women in…
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Your coronavirus Jewish resource guide
With rabbis and public health officials warning against participating in Jewish life activities due to the spread of coronavirus many are wondering how to have an active Jewish life amongst the many cancelations and advisories. We will be updating this guide with resources as they become available. (Last updated 3/16 2:11 p.m.) As a public…
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Hoop dreams dashed: Yeshiva University’s best season ever ends abruptly with NCAA cancellation
The Yeshiva University basketball team did everything possible to protect themselves. After a second-round victory in the NCAA Division III tournament Saturday night — the best result in school history — the team decamped to Long Island rather than returning to the Manhattan campus, which had been partially shut down because a student tested positive…
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Need To Know: Coronavirus in the Jewish community
The United States has seen nearly 1,000 cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus, which the World Health Organization characterized Wednesday as a pandemic — and the biggest outbreak in the U.S. is in Jewish community of New Rochelle, N.Y., just outside New York City. Also among the infected: a Jewish non-profit professional in Cleveland, several attendees…
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Online anti-Semitism thrives around coronavirus, even on mainstream platforms
The first Jewish coronavirus case was announced on March 3, but as early as January, Jews have been blamed online for spreading the virus, said Alex Friedfeld, an investigative researcher at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. Jonathan Sarna, a professor of Jewish-American History at Brandeis University, said this latest public health-related conspiracy theory reflects…
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Scenes from ‘ground zero’: inside New Rochelle’s coronavirus containment zone
Patrick Vecchio was delivering kosher Chinese food to Jews quarantined in their homes in New Rochelle Tuesday afternoon when he heard the news: He was smack in the middle of the “containment zone” — a one-mile radius around an Orthodox synagogue in this New York suburb. Schools, places of worship and other large gathering areas…
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Could the same man have brought coronavirus to both CPAC and AIPAC conferences?
The tens of thousands of devotees who attended last week’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference and the Conservative Political Action Conference at the end of February have all gone back home, bringing with them new ideas about U.S.-Israel relations and strategies for Republican victories in the 2020 election, respectively. Some have also brought…
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Jews will vote for Sanders against Trump, but many won’t like it. Why?
Four years ago, Loren Selig was thrilled to support Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont for the Democratic nomination for president. Now, not so much. Like Sanders, she’s a New York transplant to New England and a passionate progressive. In 2016, she saw his emphasis on people caring for one another as very Jewish. But this…
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Orthodox Jews under quarantine yearn to reunite, gather online in the meantime
In another year, this would be a scene from a Purim spiel, the goofy plays put on for the Jewish holiday where costumes, debauchery and satire reign: Dozens of teenage yeshiva students, racing around a New York City suburb in Ubers. They stop at Jewish houses where people are under quarantine, and speed-read all 10…
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