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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Community ‘We are scouts into a world of racism and police abuse’
This week in synagogues throughout the world, Jews will read Parashat Sh’lach L’cha, the story of the scouts sent by Moses into the land of Canaan. The scouts, representing each of the 12 tribes, were sent to gather information and return to advise the people on what to expect. After 40 days, they return to…
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News Jews, Christians sue Cuomo and de Blasio for violating religious freedom during pandemic
Five defendants, including three Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn, are suing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Letitia James and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for violating their civil rights by forbidding religious gatherings and requiring “oppressive conditions” that limit gathering sizes during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the complaint filed last Wednesday….
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Fast Forward Ohio’s Jewish health director, who faced anti-Semitic backlash, resigns
(JTA) — Amy Acton, the Jewish Department of Health director in Ohio who came under fire for the stay-at-home orders to stem the coronavirus crisis, including armed protesters carrying signs with anti-Semitic messages, has resigned. Acton, whose resignation was official on Thursday, will become the chief health adviser to Gov. Mike DeWine. Since the start…
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News Israel’s schools reopen, then some close, leaving parents flummoxed
“Put on your masks,” a security guard instructed backpack-wearing adolescents Sunday morning as they streamed into their middle school in in northern Tel Aviv. They lined up to show him the signed declarations by their parents that they are fever-free. When one maskless boy said he forgot his, the guard shouted, “Anyone have a spare…
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Culture The extremely problematic and incredibly harsh impact of Coronavirus on art
Most art is unfinished — quietly, unglamorously, pointlessly. Two and a half chapters of a novel yellowing in a bottom drawer; sets for a play nobody bothers to produce; a pilot never aired; a melody never resolved; a canvas never covered. That’s just the physical evidence — for every half-finished work, there are thousands that…
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News Ultra-Orthodox children hold ‘Kid lives matter’ protest over summer camp closures
Hundreds of Haredi children in Brooklyn gathered in the early evening on Thursday to ask New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and to open sleepaway camps and parks. Videos and photos showed a crowd of children, mostly boys with sidecurls and kippot, walking and biking along Bedford Avenue,…
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Culture For centuries, Jews have been battling epidemics like coronavirus
Decades after the Jews were expelled from Spain, a Jewish traveler worked his way through the medieval Jewish cemetery of Toledo, copying epitaphs from the gravestones there. One of them belonged to Joseph ben Meir Abulafia, a newlywed who, along with his wife, was among tens of millions of people — in Europe, as much…
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News N.C. rabbis: The ‘moral pandemic’ of racism is a Jewish problem
“I experience racism in the Jewish community on a regular basis,” said Rabbi Sandra Lawson, one of four North Carolina rabbis behind an urgent call for American Jews to take action against police violence. “As a black queer woman, I don’t see a lot of people who look like me.” Long before Lawson was ordained,…
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Most Popular
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Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
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Fast Forward First Puka Nacua, now Mookie Betts: Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic around a Jewish streamer?
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Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
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Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Holocaust survivor event features a Rob Reiner video address — recorded just weeks before his death
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Fast Forward In Reykjavik, Hanukkah offers a chance for Iceland’s tiny, isolated Jewish community to come together
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Opinion When my children decorate for Hanukkah, I don’t just see pride. I see pluralism in action.
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Fast Forward ‘The most Australian name’: Matilda, the youngest victim of the Bondi Beach attack, embodies a nation’s grief
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