This is 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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News How one woman’s need for toilet paper turned into a charity serving thousands
Last March, Liron Samara, an Israeli-born psychotherapist living in Los Angeles, read an article about an elderly woman who couldn’t find toilet paper at the store. It was shortly after the coronavirus pandemic had turned toilet paper into a rare and valuable commodity. Samara had just lost her 89-year-old grandmother in February, and she wanted…
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Community Jewish compassion isn’t just for Jews
At the end of the summer, synagogue pews tend to thin out. Congregants (and rabbis) are often on vacation, taking a break before the High Holidays. Some of us secular-cultural Jews who don’t attend synagogue in the first place also tend to detach from our engagement with organized Jewish life. This summer proves even more…
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Community There are some we won’t be seeing after lockdown?
As quarantine drags into its sixth month, I find myself missing my friends more than ever. I long for the days when I could fly across the country, eat at restaurants, and ultimately feel a sense of safety around me. My friends are spread across the country and my family is spread across the world….
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Archive Legacy Bintel: In 1906, a Jewish boy supporting his family risks death for wages
The original Bintel Brief column was founded at the Forward in 1906 and ran through the 1980s. Written in Yiddish, letter writers sought advice on heartbreak, poverty, religious quarrels, family disputes, love triangles and more. Legacy Bintel revisits these original Bintel Brief letters. Many appear here in English for the first time. They have been…
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Community A pitch for the High Holy Days season: Follow the lead of Major League Baseball
I recently received an email from my favorite baseball team advertising fan cutouts as an antidote to empty stadiums. As quick as a fastball, I threw on my best team jersey and cap, snapped a photo and uploaded it to the website. My husband did the same so that we could sit together in cardboard…
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News Jewish schools in suburbs see increased interest due to coronavirus
Bari Klein, her husband and two young children left their apartment in lower Manhattan during the second week of March, swapping the city for the perceived safety of the suburbs as the coronavirus pandemic hit New York City. “We didn’t want to be isolated in an apartment with a family,” she said. Now, they’ve decided…
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Community My daughter, the voter
As Jewish mothers, we brag about our kids all the time. My son the doctor, his brother the lawyer, my daughter the scientist who is going to cure cancer. But something happened yesterday that made me the proudest kind of Jewish mom, my kid got her voter registration card. Long ago in the last century,…
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Fast Forward Ex-Obama health official gives Coronavirus Rosh Hashanah pep talk
(JTA) – As the High Holidays approach, Jews across the country are preparing for a Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur like none they’ve ever experienced. Andy Slavitt, a former Obama administration official who ran Medicare and Medicaid from 2015 to 2017, wants to encourage his fellow Jews to look on the bright side. “This is…
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News An Israeli restaurant chain said it closed due to boycotts. Protesters are celebrating.
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Opinion Jews are worried about Zohran Mamdani. Here’s why they shouldn’t be
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Film & TV What the new season of ‘Nobody Wants This’ gets right — and very wrong — about Judaism
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Opinion JD Vance just made a critical error in Israel — and time to curb Hamas is running short
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward ADL enlists major law firms to launch pro bono network for antisemitism cases
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Holy Ground American synagogues are closing at a record rate. This retired judge is rescuing their stained glass windows.
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Fast Forward German government pledges record $1B in funding for Holocaust survivor home care
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Fast Forward Vance downplays ‘little skirmishes’ as Israel bombs in Gaza and Hamas fails to return hostages
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