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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Culture Need something to listen to in quarantine? Here are our podcast picks.
Podcasts were once merely the niche hipster cousins of terrestrial radio. That changed in 2014, a decade into the form’s existence, when “This American Life” debuted its offshoot podcast “Serial,” introducing mainstream audiences to both the gripping case of Adnan Syed and the vast and democratic potential of downloadable digital audio. Now, there’s a podcast…
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News For domestic violence advocates, calls are down, but need is going up
In the weeks after Passover, the phones are usually ringing at Jewish organizations supporting domestic violence victims. For observant Jews, the eight-day festival entails a significant financial burden, an increase in household and childcare responsibilities, and long periods of time spent in the home — all factors that can exacerbate or catalyze domestic abuse. This…
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Community During a pandemic too, I am grateful for these things
I do not leave my apartment except to do laundry in the basement, walk to the grocery store or to the Hudson River to make sure the Statue of Liberty is still standing. I appreciate these three life-affirming activities along with extra time at home to go within. The following includes what I have been…
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Community God calls to us in all things
A few days ago, a member of my congregation asked me a direct and painful question: “How could God let such a horrific plague as coronavirus befall our earth? Can you help me understand?” Can you help me understand? Setting aside for the moment the ten mythological plagues we recalled at our recent seders, ours…
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Fast Forward Whistleblowers in the haredi Orthodox community have always faced obstacles. Coronavirus is no different.
(JTA) – Jacob Kornbluh was walking past his synagogue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park on Passover when he noticed a light on inside the building. Knowing that the synagogue had been closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, he looked inside and saw approximately 40 people praying. “I said to myself this…
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Fast Forward Here’s how US Jewish groups are helping overwhelmed health care workers
(JTA) — When the coronavirus pandemic began sweeping across America, New Orleans artist and former paramedic Peter Seltzer decided he had a role to play. Seltzer not only came out of EMT retirement to pick up paramedic shifts, he also investigated how else he could help health care workers by consulting with colleagues at his…
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Fast Forward Some governors are letting houses of worship reopen. Synagogues aren’t going for it.
(JTA) — The road to reopening for houses of worship has been paved in a handful of states, even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to kill more than 1,500 Americans a day. But synagogues in the Republican-led states that are relaxing some restrictions — including Georgia, Texas and South Carolina — appear unlikely to take…
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Community Jewish educators will be on the frontlines of the recovery
The Jewish community, like most of the world, still does not yet know when the current crisis will end. We can, however, begin to think about parts of our life that will be different after this period than they were before. For Jewish education specifically, thinking ahead is critical; it will fall to Jewish communal…
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Culture RFK Jr.’s poems to Olivia Nuzzi are peak cringe — so were King Solomon’s
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News DNA test kits spark a surge of online conversions to Judaism in the U.S.
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Opinion What does Mamdani’s response to synagogue protests mean for Jews? No one will like the answer.
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Opinion More than 25% of Israelis want to leave the country. How did we get here?
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Pope Leo meets with Erdogan, says two-state solution is the ‘only’ path forward in Middle East
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Fast Forward Meet Zevi Eckhaus, the Jewish college football bowl-bound quarterback who prays at the 18-yard line
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Fast Forward Cory Booker has long embraced Jewish tradition. Now he has married a Jewish woman.
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Culture She was a dancer who leapt to the top of her field — then the Trump administration fired her
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