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 Daily distraction: Take an art course from MoMA
Welcome to your daily distraction, our recommendations for ways to stay engaged and entertained while we socially distance ourselves to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak. You can find our past recommendations here; many of the opportunities we’ve highlighted are ongoing. It’s the start of a new week. Many of us have now been practicing social…
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Opinion Wearing a face mask? You’re doing a mitzvah. Make a brachah!
Among the Jewish tradition’s most cherished values is the sanctity of human life. With a few notable exceptions, one must not endanger their life in order to fulfill a religious obligation. And one must violate even the most significant commandments in order to save another person’s life. Saving one life is regarded as the equivalent…
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Opinion The media’s latest hypocrisy: Blaming Orthodox victims of coronavirus
Orthodox Jews don’t use technology on the Sabbath or holidays. When two-day holidays fall on Thursday and Friday, as Passover did last week, it means three days off the grid. But when the peaceful three-day holidays drew to a close on Saturday night, I was filled with a sense of dread. I knew my inbox…
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News Life in the time of corona: L.A. portraits
No one has been left unscathed from the effect of the coronavirus, from storeowners to rock-and-roll guitarists. Los Angeles-based writer and photographer Ayala Or-El captured some of the stories shared by members of the L.A. Jewish community. Sean Hurwitz, guitar player for the band Smash Mouth The news that his livelihood is in jeopardy caught…
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Opinion Coronavirus is a fire drill for climate change
This Passover, abandoning bread for matzah will hardly register as a disruptive change. Our experience of the coronavirus has upended everything. It turns out our world is much more fragile than we thought. Things we have always taken for granted — that grocery stores will be stocked with food; hospitals will have available beds and…
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News Meet the rabbi, military chaplain and Jewish educator who wants to thank you for your service
In less than a week, Larry Freedman was called to fight the coronavirus epidemic on two different fronts. As a religious school director in Pittsburgh, Rabbi Freedman was tasked with moving an entire curriculum online after most public spaces were shuttered due to the virus in late March. Just a few days later, he was…
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Culture Daily distraction: National poetry month
Welcome to your daily distraction, our recommendations for ways to stay engaged and entertained while we socially distance ourselves to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak. You can find our past recommendations here; many of the opportunities we’ve highlighted are ongoing. A quarantine haiku: Out of my window The streets below are empty Good; flatten the…
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Community It’s all about relationships, especially in a pandemic
I write this sitting in a Hilton hotel room in what is known as “Med City,” Rochester, Minnesota. My wife Susie and I have been in this same room since February 6 when we arrived to enter the world-famous Mayo Clinic kidney transplant center. That amounts to nearly 60 days, isolated from most family and…
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Opinion Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point
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News They texted about Torah and mitzvahs. Feds say they were insider trading
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Culture At Eurovision, Israel’s near triumph shows the limits of tolerance
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Opinion I run The Jewish Theological Seminary. Here’s the real story about President Isaac Herzog speaking at our commencement
In Case You Missed It
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Opinion The San Diego imam defended Oct. 7. His mosque still deserves our help
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Sports An op-ed compared an NBA team to Israel as underdog success stories. Then the threats poured in.
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Theater In ‘Waiting for Godot,’ the tragedy and comedy of the Jewish experience
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Fast Forward Rep. Jared Moskowitz becomes latest Jewish lawmaker to reveal antisemitic threats