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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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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Community ‘My mother and I went grocery shopping holding hands.’
This year the question of ‘Why is this night different than all other nights?’ left me in silence. We all knew the answer to that question. I feel dumb founded and at loose ends! I am living housebound because of this deadly virus. I have been ordered to wash my hands, to keep six feet…
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Life Faith, family and funerals: The pandemic through a rebbetzin’s lens
As a public service during this pandemic, the Forward is providing free, unlimited access to all coronavirus articles. If you’d like to support our independent Jewish journalism, click here. I write this from a makeshift war-room: lists of synagogue-members’ phone numbers and holy books spread out over the desk, a bottle of Purell in the…
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News Rabbis: Synagogues should be among last places to reopen. What does that mean for High Holidays?
The United States is starting to reopen, but a broad range of Jewish leaders are citing religious values to say that synagogues should be among the last places to do so. And compounds the uncertainty around the High Holidays, which happen in the fall and are the peak season of the Jewish year. Will American…
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Fast Forward Pence aide who is also wife of Stephen Miller tests positive for coronavirus
A member of Vice President Mike Pence’s staff has tested positive for coronavirus, President Trump said on Friday. He referred to the infected person as a “press person” named Katie; Pence’s press secretary is Katie Miller. Two people with knowledge of Miller’s diagnosis also confirmed to Politico that it is coronavirus. Miller, who is Jewish,…
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Books The Lakers were about to shock the NBA. But Shabbat had to end first.
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Fast Forward As Greenpoint’s Jewish community grows, so does this shul’s Hebrew school
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Fast Forward Prominent NYC rabbi urges congregants to vote against Zohran Mamdani in Shabbat sermon
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Fast Forward Ro Khanna, Democratic critic of Israel, says he supports Zionism and the ‘right for Israel to exist’
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