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 ‘By learning how to keep loving camp, I learned how to keep loving my broken, messy, beautiful country’
In February 2020, rising Counselors In Training at URJ camp Harlam attended the RAC’s L’Taken Social Justice Seminar, the Reform movement’s flagship social justice program that takes high school students to lobby on Capitol Hill. Dear Camp Harlam L’Taken Participants of 2020, Just a few weeks ago, in another world, I was sitting with you…
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News In Minnesota, an ancient Jewish mandate gives impetus to rent breaks
When coronavirus shut down Minnesota, Aaron Berc kept hearing story after story about people that could no longer pay their rent if they wanted to feed their families. As a community organizer for the St. Paul-based social justice organization Jewish Community Action, he had also been exploring how Jewish text study could bolster his organizing…
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News Love online in the time of quarantine is oddly old-fashioned
The Facebook post opens like this: “I present to you: your bubbie’s wet dream.” He’s a nice Jewish boy over six feet tall. He’s crushing it at his hedge fund. He volunteers in his spare time. And he will make you the best pancakes you’ve ever had — if you sleep over. If you’re ever…
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Community ‘In all of the pain I am reminded why I became a rabbi in the first place’
“Like I told you, it’s an honor.” With these words, Jimmy Breslin concluded his famous New York Herald Tribune column after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. While every other journalist covered our nation in mourning, Breslin wrote about Clifton Pollard, the gravedigger who prepared President Kennedy’s grave. He made the small big, told…
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Fast Forward Synagogue jumps to revise slogan slammed as sexist for linking women and whining
A synagogue in Florida revised a slogan for an all-male panel after a tagline linking women and whininess drew criticism from feminists who are trying to address what they see as a lack of gender equity in Jewish communal work, such as education, philanthropy and the pulpit. As part of a ramped-up slate of online…
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Opinion COVID exposed America as a failed state. How can I honor the military oath I swore?
“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…_” I spoke these words for the first time in the summer of 1997 when I entered basic training at the United States…
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Fast Forward Jewish head of Ohio health department targeted with protest at her home, anti-Semitic slurs
Protesters gathered in front of the home of Dr. Amy Acton, the head of Ohio’s health department, on Saturday afternoon to push back against state rules that are keeping businesses closed in order to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. Protesters and politicians who oppose the state rules have targeted Acton, who is Jewish,…
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Culture Pandemics have always incited anti-Semitism. Here’s the history you need to know.
Every pandemic begins with a terrifying moment in which it seems impossible to explain what is happening. Often, whoever is considered the “other” in society is blamed, a scapegoating we see happening here and now. President Trump’s administration has drawn criticism for periodically insisting on calling the coronavirus “the Chinese virus,” a move many see…
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Fast Forward Why some Satmar Hasidic leaders endorsed Zohran Mamdani as mayor, stunning many Jewish voters
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Sports It’s so cool that Sandy Koufax was there for that
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News An Israeli restaurant chain said it closed due to boycotts. Protesters are celebrating.
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News Mamdani opposes Zionism, but wants New York public schools to teach about it
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Zohran Mamdani, Muslim Democratic NYC candidate, looms large at Republican Jewish confab
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Fast Forward Why some Satmar Hasidic leaders endorsed Zohran Mamdani as mayor, stunning many Jewish voters
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Fast Forward Angela Buchdahl, prominent NYC rabbi, ratchets up criticism of Zohran Mamdani — and cautions against Jewish infighting
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Fast Forward Maryland kosher pizzeria to furloughed federal workers: You can pay us back later
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