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 This is not our first seder in isolation
Jews are no strangers to seders in isolation. The first seder which ever took place was in the ancient land of Egypt (Mitzrayim), that narrow and constrained space. “None of you shall go outside the door of their house until morning.” These are not words from the health department’s recent report; they are words from…
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Opinion Editorial | Coronavirus claims another victim: Jewish journalism
There is so much to mourn the loss of these days: our inability to be around communal tables for Seder tonight, our freedom to gather for brises and bnei mitzvah, our confidence in the future — and, most of all, every individual taken by the terrible Covid-19. But save some grief for the Jewish Chronicle,…
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Culture Hal Willner, 64: The strangest, most beloved man in show business
Hal Willner might have been the most willfully strange person in show business. The music producer, who died on Monday at age 64 of complications of coronavirus, had a magic touch. He could get anyone to do anything: Tom Waits to sing an unrecognizable, railroad-rough version of “Heigh Ho” from Disney’s “Snow White”; R &…
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Fast Forward Coronavirus kills 15 at Amsterdam’s Jewish old-age home
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — At least 15 people have died at the main Jewish elderly home in Amsterdam and another 22 are infected with the disease. COVID-19 began infecting Beth Shalom residents in the middle of March, just before management imposed a lockdown, a spokesperson for the medical administration Cordaan, which runs the home, told Het…
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Fast Forward ‘We too have become a victim of Covid-19’: Biggest Jewish newspapers in Britain, Canada will close
The most prominent Jewish newspapers in Britain and Canada have both announced this week that they will soon close due to a lack of funds exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The closures will leave the nations with the fourth- and fifth-biggest Jewish populations in the world without non-sectarian newspapers that cover the nationwide Jewish community….
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Opinion Don’t blame haredi Jews for the spread of coronavirus. Blame their media and leadership.
In New York and Israel, ultra-Orthodox communities have been among the hardest hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Some community members point to a lack of access to mainstream media outlets to explain how this epidemic came to ravage the haredi community. Community members didn’t know the extent of the virus or the way it…
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Fast Forward Ramah in the Rockies avoids layoffs after receiving federal grant
(JTA) — The staff at Ramah in the Rockies got a rare bit of good news on Tuesday: Just days after applying for a grant designed to help small businesses weather the coronavirus-induced financial crisis, the Jewish summer camp had been approved. The organization had applied for the grant, made available as part of the…
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Community This year, we all get to host seder
For years now, I have been attempting to rework the Passover Seder for my family. I’ve meditated on how to create excitement and renewal in our understanding of the story, how to include growing children in unique ways, and how to put on a seder without burdening others to help us prepare for the day….
Most Popular
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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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