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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Opinion Every Jew must decide which side they’re on
On the first day, a white woman made a panicked call to 911, because a black man bird-watching nearby in Central Park politely asked her to leash her dog. On the second day, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was arrested and lynched by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, who pressed his knee into…
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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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Opinion Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point
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News They texted about Torah and mitzvahs. Feds say they were insider trading
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Culture At Eurovision, Israel’s near triumph shows the limits of tolerance
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Opinion I run The Jewish Theological Seminary. Here’s the real story about President Isaac Herzog speaking at our commencement
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Rep. Jared Moskowitz becomes latest Jewish lawmaker to reveal antisemitic threats
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Fast Forward Jewish groups denounce fatal shooting at San Diego mosque, say it proves need for security funding
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News Mamdani’s first Jewish Heritage event reveals a narrowed circle
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Culture The Israeli song that almost won Eurovision was about far more than the breakup of a love affair