Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
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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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News A Jewish food festival draws big names online
Lining up participants for The Great Big Jewish Food Fest has been the easiest experience with event planning Jeffrey Yoskowitz has ever had. “Not a single person we’ve asked has said a flat out ‘no,’”Yoskowitz said, “everyone has said ‘I’m in, I want to be part of it.’” Yoskowitz is the coauthor of the “The…
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Film & TV Bonhoeffer biopic tells of a pastor turned would-be Hitler assassin — but is the story true?
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News Texas schools want to add Queen Esther to the curriculum. Here’s why Jews (and many Christians) are opposed.
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News What Mike Huckabee’s ‘Kids Guide to Israel’ says about his views
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Culture At 95, Shaindel Schreiber is still dispensing babka and advice on the Lower East Side
In Case You Missed It
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News Israel reached a ceasefire in Lebanon. Why does Gaza seem so hard?
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Culture Barbra Streisand recorded here — and so did Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, John Lennon and, uh, The Village People
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Fast Forward Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to helm EPA, says he received bomb threat with ‘pro-Palestinian themed message’
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Opinion We can be thankful this year — and Jewish wisdom can help
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