Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
The Latest
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Culture Holocaust survivors are now receiving their first doses of the vaccine — and fame
Elderly Holocaust survivors are among the most susceptible to the current pandemic; 900 died of Covid in Israel alone. That is why it was heartening to see, on Twitter, one 97-year-old Holocaust survivor grinning because she had just beaten Covid, and another smiling after receiving her first dose of the vaccine. My 97-Year-old Great Grandma,…
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Art An artist in exile talks Tu B’Shvat tarot and working from her childhood home
During the pandemic, Jessica Tamar Deutsch has been considering exile as she relearns how to paint. Specifically, she’s been thinking about the title character in “The Lost Princess,” a story by Rabbi Nachman, the mystic founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, about a young woman who disappears from her home after displeasing her kingly father….
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Culture Jews plead, once again: Listen to the lyrics of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’
Another state occasion, another misuse of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Across the internet, fans of the poet are pleading: Stop the madness! On Jan. 19, 2021, before the reflecting pool by the Lincoln Memorial, gospel singer Yolanda Adams concluded a somber memorial to the over 400,000 Americans dead of Covid-19 with Cohen’s storied song of sex…
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News No refrigerators left: L.A.’s COVID-19 spike swamps Jewish mortuaries
On one recent Saturday night, mortuary director Moe Goldsman got his first call at 10 p.m., his second at 12:30 a.m., and his third at 1:45 a.m. He worked through the night and went to sleep at dawn. With coronavirus numbers skyrocketing in Southern California since Thanksgiving, Goldsman’s Sholom Mortuary is struggling to keep pace…
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News Mostly ignored, Jews of color turn to special fund for COVID relief
Editor’s note: In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Forward is resurfacing some of our recent coverage related to the Black-Jewish experience and racial justice. This article originally appeared in August, 2020. Some are trans Jews of color on the brink of homelessness. One is an African-American man who worked at a Jewish…
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News In California, rabbis ask why clergy aren’t in first — or second, or third — group for COVID-19 vaccination
As tens of thousands of vaccines are distributed to healthcare workers and the elderly across Los Angeles County, faith leaders are not in either of the top tiers, keeping them sidelined as the pandemic worsens through the winter months. “I’m baffled,” said Rabbi Elazar Muskin, who leads Young Israel of Century City, an Orthodox synagogue…
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Israel News Experts dismiss Israeli drive to vaccinate world’s Holocaust survivors as political stunt
An Israeli cabinet minister’s plan to vaccinate all 320,000 of the world’s remaining Holocaust survivors immediately drew harsh criticism from survivor advocates, former diplomats and public health experts, who accused her of floating the monumental effort to boost her political profile ahead of the country’s upcoming parliamentary election. The Shalom Corps, a non-profit jointly owned…
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Fast Forward Brad Schneider is third Democrat to contract COVID-19 after sheltering with Republicans during riot
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider became the third House Democrat to test positive for COVID-19 after sheltering in place with unmasked GOP colleagues during the Capitol riot last week. Schneider disclosed his positive test results on social media. “Wearing a mask is not a political statement, it is public health guidance, common courtesy, and simply what…
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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 Why does Trump’s Gaza plan sound so familiar? Because the Nazis tried it first
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward ‘Unspeakable evil’: Vice President Vance tours Dachau on first international trip
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Fast Forward Joaquin Phoenix, Ilana Glazer and hundreds of Jewish celebrities and rabbis ‘say no to ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza in full-page NYT ad
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Books How a Jewish daughter’s search to find her parents became a book and a play and a movie
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Books What does it mean that Judaism is a religion of loopholes?
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