This is the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
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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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News New CDC guidelines could make a family Passover possible
When Passover seders and the family gatherings that often accompany them were scuttled by the COVID-19 pandemic last April, many assumed Jewish gatherings would be back in time for the High Holidays. Instead, coronavirus deaths continued to mount throughout 2020 and the pandemic continues, despite ongoing vaccination efforts. But new guidance from the Centers for…
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Opinion Yes, Israel should vaccinate all Palestinians. Here’s why.
Editor’s Note: Israel’s vaccination program for its citizens and residents does not discriminate based on ethnicity; Arab-Israelis and Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are eligible along with Jews, as we reported in this Feb. 16 article, There is debate over Israel’s responsibility to vaccinate Palestinians under the Geneva Convention and the Oslo Accords, as we…
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Opinion A year into COVID, we must send kids back to shul
On the first night of Hanukkah, I went to downtown D.C. to witness the menorah lighting on the National Mall with my four kids. I’ve never been one for such Jewish spectacles. I’ve never even been much of a synagogue-goer. But I’ve long known that when it comes to building their Jewish identity, my kids…
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News The outbreak started in a New Rochelle shul. A year later, a look at that community.
I forgot to go outside at 7 p.m. on Wednesday to clap. Honestly, until I got the email from New Rochelle City Hall a few days earlier outlining plans to mark the one-year anniversary of COVID-19 arriving in our town, I had forgotten about the clapping altogether. It feels like it was all so long…
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Culture Inside the ancient Christian theology driving modern antisemitism
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News Jews paused Indiana’s abortion ban — by turning a religious freedom law against the evangelical right
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Culture In 1989, Harold Pinter and Jerry Schatzberg made the perfect Holocaust movie for 2026
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News Mamdani to attend Passover Seder as he navigates ties with Jewish groups amid rising antisemitism
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Culture Two women race to save Persian Jewish music before it fades
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Opinion Passover liberation and US liberty both summon us to remember and renew
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Culture 70 years ago, this Jewish choreographer predicted our epidemic of loneliness and isolation
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Culture Gene Shalit, a mensch with a personality as big as his mustache, turns 100
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