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 Coronavirus aid for Jewish day schools caught up in DeVos debate
Millions of dollars that could help Jewish private schools pay for transportation and tutoring are in limbo because of a political fight between Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives over whether the money should support all students or just those who are poor. The dispute concerns $13.5 billion in federal dollars…
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Fast Forward AIPAC cancels next year’s policy conference due to COVID
(JTA) — AIPAC has canceled its 2021 policy conference, citing the “continued uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic.” Betsy Korn, the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, made the announcement in a letter sent to the organization’s membership on Sunday. The annual conference had been scheduled for March 7-9 in Washington, D.C. One…
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Culture Escape from New York — a third-generation migration tale
On March 7, I took a picture of a “child pile” in my Brooklyn apartment. Ten of my daughter’s friends had spent the night, celebrating the closing of a school play they’d worked on. The floor was a mess of sleeping bags, pillows, backpacks, soda bottles and empty bags of Doritos. A Happy Birthday banner…
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Community ‘Zoom shiva is shiva distilled to its essence’
I am one of those people with one of those stories. My mom, 83, went into the hospital in early April with something relatively routine. A few weeks and complications later, she went to a rehab to regain her strength. My dad delivered her reading glasses and an everything bagel to the door, knowing, of…
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Life We asked the experts: can teens see friends in a summer without camp?
Teenage summers are transformative times. Between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next, adolescents take on new roles at camp, become temporary members of the workforce, and enjoy evening cruises down back roads. They cement friendships, escape parents’ watchful eyes, and break the rules — just a little. “This is…
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Community ‘What religion was my cousin? What rituals could we all share?’
My cousin was born a Jew, accepted Christ, and died an atheist in a COVID ward in a Florida hospital. He was secretly laid to rest a week later, his Christian wife spreading his ashes on the grave of our observant Jewish grandmother in a private, unauthorized graveside funeral. Before the funeral, there were discussions…
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Community Mourning, healing, and proximity in a COVID world
There is a story told in the Talmud (Tractate Berakhot, 5b) about Rabbi Yohanan. He possessed a great healing ability, the unique ability to listen and hold the pain of the other, and he had also experienced unimaginable loss as 10 of his children died in his lifetime. In one famous story he goes to…
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Community American Jews were not only all at Sinai, but also all in Newport
Few celebrations occurred to mark this year’s Jewish American Heritage Month, which ends on Monday. Trapped in our houses and apartments while a plague ravages our country, somberness and anxiety are our constant companions. Our synagogues have been shuttered, our schools closed, and our community centers emptied. The mood and circumstances have not been conducive…
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Most Popular
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Fast Forward Expelled Oberlin Chabad rabbi says he ‘made a mistake’ with explicit social media chats
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Culture Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary on the manosphere takes a detour into antisemitism
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Fast Forward Illinois primary pits Jewish candidate with deep Israel ties against AIPAC spending
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Opinion Trump has forced an impossible choice on American synagogues amid antisemitic attacks
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward ‘Buffer zones’ come to California, as a lawmaker proposes limiting protests near houses of worship
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Fast Forward The first and second Jewish mayors of Providence, Rhode Island, just had a shared bar mitzvah
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Fast Forward ‘Jew-FK Jr.’: Meet the Connecticut dad and children’s book author who won a JFK Jr. lookalike contest
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Fast Forward Germany pulls support for Israel in ICJ genocide case, battling its own accusations of aiding Israel
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