Welcome to 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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Breaking News Virus outbreak in black-Jewish Baltimore neighborhood leads to anti-Semitic blame game
An African-American radio host’s public blaming of Jews for Baltimore’s coronavirus outbreak led to an accusation of anti-Semitism, particularly since data shows that the city’s COVID-19 hotspots include neighborhoods popular with both Jews and black residents. “There are a lot of Jewish people moving down here from New York City,” the host, George Mitchell, said…
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Community Why on this night do we sit when we could be dancing?
As I sat down for my family’s teleseder this year, the parallels between slavery and the physical confinement of quarantine were irresistible. We discussed how Pharaoh was or wasn’t like an oppressive pandemic, or how the virus is or isn’t like a plague. And while I appreciate those questions, I would also like to bring…
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News Rabbis gave this mental health hotline special dispensation. Hundreds have called it.
A single mother, laid off because of coronavirus, asks how to manage her anxiety. A domestic violence victim wonders how to protect herself in quarantine. A father working at home seeks anger management tips. These are just a sample of calls to a recently-created hotline for Jews struggling with mental health issues during the coronavirus…
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Fast Forward 32 residents die of coronavirus at 2 Mass. Jewish living facilities
BOSTON (JTA) – Thirty-two residents at two Jewish senior living facilities that are part of the same nonprofit network have died from COVID-19, and scores of other residents and staff have tested positive for the virus. Eleven residents of Chelsea Jewish Life Care, across its three Boston-area locations, and 21 residents at JGS Lifecare in…
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News Zoom adds new security features to stop anti-Semitic trolls
The videoconferencing company Zoom has made security changes to prevent outsiders from hijacking users’ chats, according to a webinar Thursday featuring staff from Zoom and the Anti-Defamation League, which collaborated on the update. The new development came after the ADL received more than 100 reports of “Zoombombing,” when unwelcome participants shared anti-Semitic, pornographic and racist…
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Community Meet the guy keeping your synagogue running during the coronavirus crisis
A lot of you don’t know me… I’m usually busy behind the scenes. But allow me to introduce myself. I’m a producer. A director. A tech expert. A monitor of social media chat. I’m on seven days a week, mornings, nights, candle lightings, havdalahs, minyans, meet-ups, adult ed sessions, parent talks and preschool classes. I’m…
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Forverts in English Free burial society buys refrigerated trailer to hold pandemic’s backlog of bodies
Read this article in Yiddish. The non-profit organization that provides free, traditional burials for the Jewish poor has had to buy a massive trailer to manage the high volume of deaths caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It holds more than a dozen bodies, and the organization doesn’t have enough people or time to bury them…
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News Rabbi Bruce Goldman, 84, antiwar gadfly unafraid of flouting Jewish mainstream
. (JTA) — Rabbi A. Bruce Goldman’s peak moment of notoriety came in 1968 when, as the Jewish chaplain at Columbia University, he supported campus antiwar protesters who had occupied administration buildings. Goldman lost his job at the university the following year, having assumed the post only in 1967, apparently over his role in antiwar…
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Fast Forward Trump says Jews would deserve much of the blame if he loses
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Culture Hitler is trending on TikTok again — and they’re trying to make him seem like a nice guy
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Opinion This GOP candidate has always been antisemitic — so why are Republicans only panicking about him now?
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Fast Forward Sitcom star encourages non-Jews like her to hang mezuzahs on their homes
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Looking Forward An Israeli hip-hop artist remembers a day of hope in Gaza
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Sports The Jewish Sport Report: How the Chicago White Sox made a bad year even worse for Jewish fans
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Oct. 7: One Year Later A different closet: Queer Zionists navigate the post-Oct. 7 dating scene
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Looking Forward Why won’t Kamala Harris talk about her brisket?
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