Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
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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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Community ‘We both knew camp was a privilege’
Let me begin by telling you that I know this is frivolous. We are in the middle of a horrific pandemic that has upended our lives; more importantly, it has ended tens of thousands of lives But there is another situation that threatens our expectations: Summer is over before it has started—some day and overnight…
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Life Help – my naturopath sister doesn’t believe in corona!
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]. Growing up is hard to do Dear Abbys, I was raised in a…
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Fast Forward Maryland county’s corona guidelines put the kibosh on communion — and kiddush
A Maryland county issued an executive order that permits synagogues to reopen but effectively prohibits kiddush receptions. As of May 29, houses of worship in Howard County may hold services with up to 10 people inside and 250 people outside. However, most forms of physical contact, from shaking hands to sharing food, are prohibited. “No…
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Opinion Letter | We must attend shul whether or not women are present
Dear Editor, As an Orthodox rabbi and someone who takes the role of women in prayer extremely seriously, I was dismayed by Rabbi Dov Linzer’s recent article To my fellow Orthodox Jews: Don’t open shuls until you can open them to women, in which Rabbi Linzer contends that Orthodox shuls in New York State should…
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Community You already know how to celebrate Shavuot at home: Make a Seder
For most communities, the coronavirus has cancelled Shavuot. That’s because the standard Shavuot celebration revolves around public, shared space events like all-night Jewish learning at a synagogue or JCC. But there is a way to bring this experience home and, in doing so, make it far better. The all-night Shavuot program is a flawed product….
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Community ‘The goal is simply to see, hear and feel our lives in a new way’
I spent last Shavuot at a “walking, sitting, writing” retreat in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Seven thousand feet above sea level, I planted my feet in the red-brown earth at the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. I held a pen between my fingers. I wrote on a page. When I signed up for…
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Fast Forward Trump says Jews would deserve much of the blame if he loses
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Opinion This GOP candidate has always been antisemitic — so why are Republicans only panicking about him now?
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Culture Hitler is trending on TikTok again — and they’re trying to make him seem like a nice guy
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Opinion A daring attack on Hezbollah may reveal Israel’s strengths — and its most terrifying weakness
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Republican senator refuses to condemn Trump’s remark that election loss would be Jews’ fault
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Opinion Israel’s next war front: Why Lebanon is different than Gaza
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Fast Forward Civilian effort to equip Israeli soldiers for war with Hezbollah ratchets up alongside hostilities
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Oct. 7: One Year Later How 10/7 — like 9/11 before it — irrevocably changed the meaning of a pair of numbers
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