Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
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Community What I hope we learn from two Passovers in social distancing exile
Last year, as we prepared for our first physically distanced Seder, I wrote a poem, my first ever, about the ritualistic importance of U’rchatz: handwashing, in times of a pandemic. It ends with: To remember all those who have lost or have been lost. Tonight, we wash our hands for ourselves, and for others, We…
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Opinion Biden’s COVID relief plan is a balm for Orthodox Jews
It’s highly unlikely that members of Congress had Jewish education, advanced Torah study or even Orthodox Jews in their minds when forging the ambitious American Rescue Plan that, after being signed into law by President Biden last week, will infuse nearly $2 trillion into the economy to counter the effects of the past year’s COVID…
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Opinion Isolating our grandparents – medically necessary, but devastating for Jewish continuity
Read this article in Yiddish It’s been more than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed us all. During this time, more than half a million people in the United States have died of the virus. You’d think that a devastation of this kind would have thrown our society into shock. Last spring and summer,…
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News They moved home for just a few weeks, fleeing the coronavirus. They’re still there.
When the pandemic began last March, with New York quickly becoming the epicenter, there was an immediate exodus to the suburbs. As offices went remote within the span of a week — including the Forward, my third day on the job — 2.6 million young adults fled apartments for their parents’ homes, where they could…
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Community As we approach the second pandemic Passover, thoughts on a year of plagues
When a particularly distressing topic would arise, the great Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem used to say: “Let’s talk about something more pleasant, like the plague in Minsk.” Well, now we have our own plague, and it is almost all that anybody talks about. Some feel the need to understand why we are suffering; answers range…
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Culture Artists confront the new plagues of Passover
Jews are uniquely equipped to ruminate on a year of plagues — from time immemorial, plagues have been our dinner conversation. But the pandemic is different. At your Seder, it may not be wise to sprinkle wine for the Makot Mitzrayim (those drips could themselves hold COVID droplets). God’s mighty hand and outstretched arm have…
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Culture Netanyahu’s embrace of ‘South Park’ proves the Michael Che dustup was political
There’s a lot going on in the new “South Park” special, but only a few seconds that seem to matter to Benjamin Netanyahu. On Thursday, the prime minister tweeted a clip from the episode that showed a passenger plane decked out with Magen Davids appearing in a burst of spangly sky diamonds. “It’s Air Israel…
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News No, they’re not named ‘Corona’: Meet 3 couples and their pandemic babies
When quarantine first began, back when some of us naively thought it would truly just be two weeks long, Twitter predicted a baby boom; so many couples were off work, locked in with each other and little to do. That, it turns out, was wrong; a study from the Brookings Institution predicts a long-lasting baby…
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Fast Forward Trump to ‘defend the rights of Christians,’ announces new faith initiative led by controversial televangelist
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Music Critics say Kendrick Lamar was too loud and hard to understand — they said the same thing about Bob Dylan in Newport
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Music In lawsuit, Drake accuses Kendrick Lamar of picking on ‘Jewish heritage’
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Opinion Yes, Trump’s Gaza plan is outrageous. It could also be just what the Middle East needs
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward A grant to study Hebrew is ‘woke DEI,’ Ted Cruz says
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Fast Forward Macklemore’s latest anti-Israel music video, ‘F—ed up,’ places the West Bank and Holocaust side-by-side
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Opinion Why does Trump’s Gaza plan sound so familiar? Because the Nazis tried it first
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News Burned trees, traumatized animals: Nature is revealing the unseen effects of Israel’s wars
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