This is the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
The Latest
-
Community Will we be excited to return to shul?
This may be one of the oldest Jewish jokes out there. A Jewish man is shipwrecked on a desert island. Working with available supplies he makes a whole community, including a shul. Eventually he is rescued by a passing ship. Before they leave, one of the sailors says, “Hey! Why’d you build two synagogues?” The…
-
Community Spiritual hunger persists even in the face of physical hunger
Amos dedicated the bulk of his prophecy to railing against the well-heeled, calling them “cows of Bashan”: “They drink [straight] from the wine bowls, And anoint themselves with the choicest oils— But they are not concerned about the food/ruin (shever) of Joseph” (Amos 6:6). And yet, in Amos’s climactic prophecy, he shifts his focus to…
-
Community Not all the statues need to come down
Three monuments—the statue of Saint Louis in Missouri, the Judah P. Benjamin monument in North Carolina, and buildings named for Woodrow Wilson at Princeton—allow us to understand how Jews should think about their place within the American racial order and how antiracists should think about Jews within the struggle to disrupt the legacies of racism….
-
Fast Forward Texas Jewish day camp closes following COVID-19 outbreak
(JTA) — A Jewish day camp in suburban Dallas has closed after at least two campers and two counselors tested positive for COVID-19. The closing of Gan Israel of Plano, Texas, on Tuesday night serves as a cautionary tale as schools look to reopen this fall. The camp, which according to its website serves kids…
-
News Jewish day schools still don’t know if they’ll reopen in the fall. Why is it taking so long?
Doron Wesly, 45, has two children, six and two, who are supposed to be taking the summer off from their Jewish day school in New York City. But on a muggy Monday in July, he was taking time out of the older child’s vacation to practice reading. After months of distance learning necessitated by the…
-
Community When a meditation is Zoom bombed
Why would anyone Zoom-bomb my online meditation class with racist slurs, genitalia references and anti-Semitic links? I had been looking forward to teaching Mindfulness Meditation for Changing Times for Silver Spring Town Center, my first foray into teaching online. After covering the mechanics of how to meditate, I led a visualization to relax the body…
-
Life I’m worried my toddler will fail Zoom preschool
From its start in 1906, A Bintel Brief was a pillar of the Forward, helping generations of Jewish immigrants learn how to be American. Now our columnists are helping people navigate the complexities of being Jewish in 2020. Send questions to [email protected]. Less screen time is more Dear Bintel, How do I work on video…
-
Community When the ideal bar mitzvah is a Zoom Mitzvah
When the world shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic and we were forced to have my twins’ b’nai mitzvah on Zoom, it ended up being a blessing in disguise. Truly, I believe that we would not have had the same level of success in person. Why? Because one of my twins is autistic. How…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News An Israeli restaurant chain said it closed due to boycotts. Protesters are celebrating.
- 2
Opinion It’s time for the pro-Palestinian movement to make a radical change
- 3
News Should synagogues remove the Israeli flag from bimahs now? How a New York shul made the decision
- 4
Film & TV What the new season of ‘Nobody Wants This’ gets right — and very wrong — about Judaism
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Leonard Bernstein wrote a love song to the White House; now it’s an elegy
-
Fast Forward As 1000+ rabbis sign anti-Mamdani letter, others decry mounting ‘red lines’ in Jewish communities
-
News Mamdani has created ‘great fear,’ and Jewish voters are ‘more motivated than I have ever seen,’ Cuomo says
-
Fast Forward The World War II origins of the White House East Wing, now demolished
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
