This is the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
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Fast Forward A rabbi said shutdown rules violate his religious freedom. Police arrested him for hosting a bonfire.
Police in Lakewood, N.J. arrested an Orthodox rabbi for violating state shutdown and distancing rules, as well as obstruction of justice and resisting arrest, after he hosted a bonfire for the Jewish holiday Lag B’Omer on Monday night. The rabbi, Yisrael Knopfler, is suing the state over the shutdown rules, which he claim violate his…
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News A Jewish holiday triggers more social distancing violations in Brooklyn
Police broke up a gathering of about 100 Orthodox Jews in Borough Park celebrating a minor Jewish festival Monday night, according to an eyewitness and the New York Police Department. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of alienating his neighbors, said he heard loud music outside and walked down the…
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Community ‘All the lights were off, except for one…the ner tamid’
For many religious people across the world, the loss of not being able to go into “the office” is coupled with the loss of another important source of connection, belonging and purpose – one’s house of prayer. For me, they happen to be the same place. I’m one of the rabbis at Sixth & I…
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Community I’m a professional comic. Here’s why you need to laugh about this pandemic.
The pandemic has brought serious challenges: people losing their health, their jobs, not to mention the COVID-19 pound weight gain. In short, there is nothing funny about the coronavirus. Or is there? COVID-19 takes away our sense of taste and smell. But there’s something it can’t – and shouldn’t– take away– our sense of humor….
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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 I spoke out against Mamdani. Then he won. Here’s how we walk forward together.
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News Indiana University removed its Jewish studies director. His replacement has ignited a firestorm over Israel.
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Fast Forward Groundbreaking analysis of Hitler’s DNA shows no Jewish ancestry — but finds a genetic disorder
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Culture Is the movie ‘Nuremberg’ about the wrong psychiatrist?
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward German auction house calls off ‘shameless’ sale of concentration camp artifacts
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Opinion A new scheme dishonoring victims of Oct. 7 — hatched by Israel’s own government
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Culture Hey, Irving — why are there so many Jews named Irving?
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Fast Forward Trump defends Tucker Carlson, whose interview with antisemite Nick Fuentes split Republicans
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