This is the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
The Latest
-
Life If you’re a young reader, we want to hear from you. What are your favorite things right now?
Since shelter-in-place orders took effect across America, we’ve published plenty of personal essays, opinion pieces and news about how adults in society are handling life inside. We’ve written about those who wear pants every day and those eschewing them completely. We’ve heard about the challenges you’ve set yourselves, like reading all of Proust — or…
-
News De Blasio’s Tweet about a funeral soured his relationship with the Orthodox — for now
Four months ago, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s relationship with Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish communities was solid as it ever was. Amid a 20% uptick in anti-Semitic violence in the city, the mayor announced in December that his police department would beef up patrols in Borough Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg. That same month,…
-
Opinion De Blasio is the wrong messenger, but has a point: All Jews are responsible for each other.
Never tweet angry. It’s a trite commandment, but like many clichés, it sounds a universal truth. Mayor Bill de Blasio violated it last night, when he infamously proclaimed, “My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed.” My message to the Jewish community, and all communities,…
-
Community ‘Is there a more dread-filled psalm than Psalm 88?’ Finding meaning in the trauma of this moment
Is there a more dread-filled psalm than Psalm 88? In this relatively little-known work, the Bible manages to capture perfectly the isolation and misery of those whose lives are upended by illness. In our current coronavirus crisis the ancient words take on new resonance. If you’ve been suffering with COVID-19 or are terrified for a…
-
Community Judaism is familiar with Great Pauses — but this one is different
There is nothing good about the coronavirus Great Pause. Full stop. But there may be an opportunity to do some good while we are trapped within it. On top of the health and economic toll it is taking, I am seeing firsthand the deep spiritual price being exacted from my children. For one daughter, this…
-
Community A wave from the window
Last week, Sherri, the “escapades-to-go” coordinator from my parents’ assisted-living facility, emailed to ask if our family would like to be part of a “get out of the car and wave to the window” event. To me, waving to my parents through a window did not sound like much of an escapade, but given that…
-
Fast Forward De Blasio: Jewish funeral broken up because it was ‘thousands of people’
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York on Wednesday defended his actions the night before in personally venturing to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to disperse a crowd at a funeral for a Hasidic rabbi and then sending a Tweet about it that outraged many in the Orthodox and broader Jewish community because it seemed to blame all…
-
News A Jewish charity donates COVID supplies to Native Americans
In late April, 2,000 surgical masks and 1,000 medical-grade plastic face shields arrived on the reservation of the Dine/Navajo Nation — enough to protect all medical personnel and first responders on the reservation. The unlikely sender? A half-Navajo, half-Jewish-led nonprofit. Indigenous Bridges forges relationships between diaspora Jewish communities and indigenous communities in North America, the…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why some Satmar Hasidic leaders endorsed Zohran Mamdani as mayor, stunning many Jewish voters
- 2
Sports It’s so cool that Sandy Koufax was there for that
- 3
Opinion I’m an Israeli who lives in New York. Here’s why I’m voting for Mamdani
- 4
News Mamdani opposes Zionism, but wants New York public schools to teach about it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward 2 of NYC’s 5 public pension funds are vulnerable to a mayor-backed Israel divestment push
-
Fast Forward What to know about ‘Not On Our Dime,’ Zohran Mamdani’s bill targeting donations to Israeli settlements
-
BINTEL BRIEF She just wants to be a good person. But she’s overwhelmed by the state of the world
-
Fast Forward Why Jeremy Corbyn’s support for Zohran Mamdani is fueling antisemitism fears
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
