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 ‘Breathe, my brothers,’ a prayer for my beloved kin with coronavirus
My day begins each morning with a walk to the ocean. I start early, in the still shy light of day. There are usually a number of people out when I walk, but in these days of sheltering in place of the coronavirus, the sidewalks and streets are eerily empty. A lone car. When I…
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Opinion ‘He asked if his Rebbi didn’t like him anymore.’ Special needs families are struggling with the pandemic
Sarah W. has six children. The youngest are three-month-old twins. But they aren’t the most challenging. Three of Sarah’s children were born with hydrocephalus, a condition in which spinal fluid accumulates in the brain, hindering development. It took years for Sarah’s children to learn how to dress themselves and feed themselves. When they are taught…
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Community Graduations, camp and more is canceled. ‘What can we say that does not risk pablum or platitudes?’
“What happens to a dream deferred?” With this question, Langston Hughes began his poem “Harlem,” inquiring what happens to a person who discovers their long-sought dream to be unobtainable. Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Does it linger and fester? Or does it, as Hughes suggests in his allusion to the…
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Community ‘My mother lived for six years on a ventilator’
A few days ago, I texted a much beloved colleague to hear how her father was faring; he had been stricken by Covid-19 a few weeks before and had been intubated and placed into a medically-induced coma. An ebullient, vivacious whirlwind, she had recently become engaged to her soulmate and had left our store to…
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Opinion Israel quietly helped Gaza fight corona. Israelis approved.
In late March, the first two people in Gaza Strip were diagnosed with COVID-19. The ongoing humanitarian disaster of Gaza was poised to reach a crescendo. Surprisingly, positive things happened instead. The overcrowded strip of land holds nearly two million people hemmed in by a 13-year old closure imposed by Israel and frequent restrictions on…
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Fast Forward How the ultra-Orthodox plan to reopen safely: No women, no children
The health guidelines issued by one of the country’s biggest Orthodox Jewish organizations proclaim that the first stage of opening synagogues safely will prevent women from attending. Agudath Israel of America, which represents Haredi Jews (sometimes called ultra-Orthodox Jews), released their plan on Friday advising member synagogues on how to safely reopen their synagogues once…
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News NYC mayor’s office promised Orthodox leaders report would be ‘gentle’ on yeshivas, emails show
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio personally called Orthodox leaders asking them to support his effort to retain control over the city’s schools in exchange for soft-balling a probe into the state of secular education at yeshivas, according to internal emails obtained by the New York Post. The emails from late June support a report,…
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Fast Forward ‘My wife saved my life’: New York’s Jewish ‘patient zero’ talks recovery after 3 weeks in a coma
After three weeks in a coma and more than a month of recovering, Lawrence Garbuz — the New Rochelle, N.Y., lawyer who was New York’s ‘patient zero’ for coronavirus — is talking about his ordeal and recuperating at home with his wife and children. “I feel glad I’m alive to be honest with you,” Garbuz…
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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Fast Forward Tucker Carlson calls for stripping citizenship from Americans who served in the Israeli army
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Opinion This German word explains Trump’s authoritarian impulses — and Hitler’s rise to power
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Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
In Case You Missed It
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Culture In ‘Guns & Moses,’ an Orthodox rabbi packs heat — no questions asked
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Opinion How I got AI to create fake Nazi memos — and what that means for the future of antisemitism
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Fast Forward How the Jewish commandment to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ could help a woman challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban in court
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: יוטוב־פּערזענלעכקייט רעדט אויף ייִדיש וועגן אַ משפּחה־טראַגעדיעVIDEO: Youtube personality speaks in Yiddish about a tragedy in the family
מאַטי מענדלאָוויטשעס ברודער, וואָס האָט יאָרן לאַנג געליטן פֿון דעפּרעסיע, האָט הײַיאָר זיך גענומען דאָס לעבן. .
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