Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
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Life No challah? Garlic bread. Shabbat dinner must go on.
I logged on to Twitter Friday morning and searched “Tribeca Whole Foods” as a kind of Shabbat-host reconnaissance mission. The results looked like a compilation of Depression-era newsreels and post-apocalyptic music videos, photos of long lines at the door and shelf after empty shelf. So I texted my guests-to-be, high-school friends that come over many…
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News Lego, prayer, candy. How our 9-year-old scheduled Shabbat under quarantine in Teaneck.
Shabbat was not canceled in Teaneck, N.J. this past weekend — but it was radically altered. When I first found out that the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County had shuttered area synagogues in an unprecedented move to help “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus pandemic, I was pleased with their leadership. The rabbis’ ban on…
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News A Jewish Netflix for teens stuck at home, and more coronavirus content offerings
The Jewish world is going online as schools, synagogues and Jewish community centers close down across the country in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus. To keep Jewish learning and life alive for the next several months, clergy and educators are using what already exists on the internet or coming up with new…
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Fast Forward Natan Sharansky gives quarantined youngsters tips for surviving solitary
Students at SAR High School and SAR Academy, private Jewish day schools in New York, are under home quarantine and learning remotely after at least 29 people associated with the school were diagnosed with coronavirus. In order to help the students cope with being unable to leave their homes, the schools brought in a virtual…
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Israel News Quarantine Diary Day 10: More questions than answers
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…
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News How synagogues across the country are planning for Shabbat despite coronavirus
One of the most important concepts in Judaism is pikuach nefesh, the principle that preserving life trumps almost every other religious rule. Accordingly, in response to the coronavirus, rabbis across the country are doing what had previously been unimaginable – telling community members not to come to Shabbat services in order to slow the spread…
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Life Some of our favorite Jewish coronavirus memes
The spread of COVID-19 is impacting lives around the world, forcing universities, schools, and offices across the country to close, or switch to remote. The Jewish community has been heavily affected. With lackluster Purim celebrations and travel plans for the upcoming Passover season being canceled, it can feel like everything good is now forbidden. Luckily,…
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Fast Forward In a reversal, Jewish Agency sending teen emissaries back to Israel, to quarantine
(JTA) — Earlier this week, the Jewish Agency for Israel said it was committed to keeping its emissaries in the United States, even as other groups brought theirs home amid the rising coronavirus crisis. But on Friday morning, with schools and synagogues across the country shuttering in an effort to curb the disease’s spread, the…
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Fast Forward ‘Rabbi rebellion’: 33 Orthodox rabbis endorse Harris
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Opinion I was a Bernie supporter. This year, I’m voting Trump. Here’s why liberal Jews like me made the switch
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Opinion Here’s why Orthodox Jews are loyal to Trump — even if they don’t love him
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FIRST PERSON As a rabbi, he helped others mourn. So why wouldn’t his daughter say kaddish for him?
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Fast Forward Thirsty Philly voters were in for a surprise: Paul Rudd and some handy hydration
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Opinion Netanyahu’s firing of Gallant is a cynical betrayal of Israel’s security
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Fast Forward They quit the Biden administration over the war in Gaza. But they are backing Harris.
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Opinion Benjamin Netanyahu firing Yoav Gallant is a staggeringly reckless decision
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