This is the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
The Latest
-
Opinion The coronavirus is transforming Judaism
If you attended religious school, you’ve probably heard this story: It was the first century of the Common Era. The Romans had destroyed Jerusalem, and with it, Judean independence. In utter despair, the Jews smuggled their leader, Yochanan ben Zakkai, out of Jerusalem in a coffin. He leaped out of the coffin, and hailed the…
-
Culture Daily distraction: Ben Platt’s dance party, the Folksbiene online and ‘West Side Story’
As the novel coronavirus outbreak continues, social distancing remains the cool thing to do — just listen to Mel Brooks. Luckily, our favorite cultural figures and institutions continue to find creative ways to keep us entertained. In case you missed our first installment, as the country enters an unprecedented period of isolation to stem the…
-
News We had to cancel the party, but the Bar Mitzvah will go on
March 21, 2020. That’s the date of my son Leo’s Bar Mitzvah. Aside from having one of the hardest and most boring Torah portions, it seemed like a pretty good date. My wife, Jill, Leo and I had put a lot of work into making the day really special. And I know that every family…
-
Life Diary of a Day-School Mom: ‘My daughter doesn’t see the need for pants’
Our kids’ school, the Hannah Senesh Community Day School in Brooklyn, is very on top of things. The attention to detail is really something fine, and it’s reflected in the number of emails they send me, some of which I manage to read. It sometimes makes me, a working mom with average organizational skills, feel…
-
Israel News Quarantine Diary Day 12: The final day!
Z ack Dinerstein and Lisa Tauber, both 35, moved from Park Slope, Brooklyn, to Tel Aviv a year ago for her job at Fiverr, an online marketplace for freelance services (he is a web developer and former podcast producer). Newlyweds, they recently went for a romantic getaway to Paris — only to find on their…
-
Fast Forward Former leader of Milan Jewish community dies of coronavirus
(JTA) — Michele Sciama, a former secretary-general of the Jewish Community of Milan, has died of the coronavirus. Sciama, known to his friends and family as Micky, was 79 when he died Monday morning. He is survived by his wife, Viviane, and two daughters, Dalia and Stefania, the Italian-Jewish Moked news site wrote in an…
-
Culture Mel and Max Brooks’ father-son coronavirus PSA is a must-watch
“World War Z” author Max Brooks makes a living selling stories of the zombie apocalypse. But today, he’s enlisting his followers to help stave off the apocalypse at hand. On Twitter, the writer teamed up with his father, the veteran comedian and director Mel Brooks, to demonstrate proper social distancing techniques in the confusing era…
-
Opinion Take it from a Jewish doctor and mom: To fight corona, we have to fight our fear.
I’m a physician, a mom, and an active member of my Jewish community. The coronavirus crisis has hit the three aspects of my identity hard. I’m worried for my patients, and concerned for my family and for my community. But in trying to meet this crisis head on from my unique vantage point, I’ve realized…
Most Popular
- 1
News DNA test kits spark a surge of online conversions to Judaism in the U.S.
- 2
Culture RFK Jr.’s poems to Olivia Nuzzi are peak cringe — so were King Solomon’s
- 3
Culture She was a dancer who leapt to the top of her field — then the Trump administration fired her
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker has long embraced Jewish tradition. Now he has married a Jewish woman.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward LA mayor condemns protest outside synagogue event that featured Israeli defense firm
-
Film & TV In ‘The Secret Agent,’ a peek into Brazilian Jewish history — and a warning against propaganda
-
Fast Forward NYC principal turns down Holocaust survivor’s talk over his ‘messages around Israel and Palestine’
-
Fast Forward Trump appointee promoted after reports he texted about having a ‘Nazi streak’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism