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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Fast Forward NYC has at most 5 Yiddish-speaking contact tracers despite COVID spike among the Orthodox
Read this article in Yiddish While New York City has hired thousands for its Test and Trace Corps in an attempt to contain the coronavirus pandemic in the city, there are no more than five Yiddish speakers on staff. The low number is especially striking as a second wave of the virus is breaking out…
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Community A sukkah kosher for coronavirus
We love exiting our homes and entering our sukkot (the plural of sukkah) because of the opportunity to commune with nature and the Divine. Such an opportunity is one of the reasons we are obligated to dwell in a sukkah during the festival. We are taught that, just as the Israelites were protected by ananei…
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Fast Forward Orthodox areas drive NYC’s COVID-19 rate to highest level since June, mayor says
New York City’s one-day positive COVID-19 test rate jumped to 3.25%, its highest rate since June, with much of the new cases attributable to zip codes with large Orthodox Jewish communities, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. The high test rate portends a shutdown of the city’s nascent public school reopening plan…
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News A Yom Kippur interview with NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins: ‘I count on God’
Just prior to Yom Kippur, Director of the National Institutes of Health Dr. Francis Collins sat for a Zoom interview with Rabbi Naomi Levy about God and the pandemic. Dr. Collins, a devout Christian, leads the United States’ search for treatments and a vaccine for COVID-19. Rabbi Levy is the founder and spiritual leader of…
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Community For those who cannot fast, Yom Kippur should still be meaningful
Yom Kippur is almost upon us. According to Torah law, the Jewish people are mandated to fast the entire day. This can be difficult enough for most people, but particularly so for those with eating disorders. Fasting itself is not just the issue. For them, Yom Kippur can be a triggering holiday that creates and…
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Fast Forward More restrictive lockdown set for Israel as Coronavirus cases soar
(JTA) — Israelis are facing a much more restrictive general lockdown, including the closure of synagogues, to prevent the record spread of the coronavirus. The stricter measures approved early Thursday would go into effect hours before Yom Kippur, which starts on Sunday evening. The full Knesset was set to vote on the new restrictions later in…
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News More schools discouraging COVID-19 testing in New York, New Jersey despite spike
Some Haredi yeshiva day schools in Brooklyn and the New York and New Jersey suburbs are discouraging COVID-19 testing for both teachers and students to try to avoid school closures despite an uptick in cases in Haredi communities broadly. At Bais Yaakov of Borough Park, for example, administrators called teachers individually and asked them to…
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Community Who decides what authentic Jewish practice looks like?
Thousands of years ago the central practice of Yom Kippur involved two goats. These goats would be taken by the high priest who would draw lots to decide which one would be immediately sacrificed in the Jerusalem temple and which one would be led out into the desert only to be pushed off a cliff…
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News When observant Jews gathered to challenge Israel orthodoxy, verbal sparring and walkouts ensued
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Opinion Trump has forced an impossible choice on American synagogues amid antisemitic attacks
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Opinion The one crucial domain in which Iran outwitted Israel
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Fast Forward Suspect in Michigan synagogue attack dead after ramming car into temple, police say
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Fast Forward Maryland man who sent threatening letters to Jewish institutions sentenced to 3 years in prison
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Fast Forward Israel says it killed Ali Larijani, Iran’s top security official and close ally of Khamenei
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Fast Forward Leqaa Kordia, the last Palestinian Columbia protester still in ICE detention, has been released
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Fast Forward In a first, NBA game features 3 Israelis — Deni Avdija, Danny Wolf and Ben Saraf
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