This is the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
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Community A new life and a virtual bris
In Genesis 17:12 God tells Abraham, “This is my covenant… And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations…” Apparently God left out the part about pandemics. And that a mohel could provide a substitute mohel for the “virtual” brit milah — the bris — because one…
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Fast Forward Two mikvahs operating in Williamsburg despite rabbis’ orders to close
Two Satmar mikvahs are unofficially open despite claims to the contrary, according to WhatsApp messages, videos and eyewitness testimony provided to the Forward. The videos, taken between 5:30 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. on Tuesday, show Orthodox Jews coming and going from Satmar synagogue buildings on South 8th Street and Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in…
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Opinion The loss of the Novominsker Rebbe, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, leaves a gaping hole in our community
I will not write about Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, who passed away suddenly this morning. I will not write about him because I simply cannot, for several reasons. First of all, my personal interactions with him were limited, to just a handful of private conversations. But more importantly, to describe him accurately would…
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Fast Forward Lakewood Jews raise thousands for family of kosher store employee who died of COVID-19
More than $15,000 has been raised in three days for the former employee of a Lakewood, N.J. kosher grocery store who died of the coronavirus. Lancelot Diaz-Hernandez, 20, passed away after spending two weeks in the hospital fighting complications from COVID and pneumonia, the Asbury Park Press reported. A GoFundMe page to aid with medical…
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Israel News Israeli TV will air Seders for viewers isolated by Passover lockdown
Next year in Jerusalem. But this year, on television. Israeli networks are hosting televised Seders so that nobody has to celebrate alone, despite the pandemic that has put a halt to family gatherings. The country’s most-watched TV station, Keshet 12, will start its star-studded event at 7:30 p.m., Israel time, Wednesday night. Billed as “The…
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Opinion No, I haven’t read all of Proust. Fighting the coronavirus humble brag
David Hockney has painted 10 new iPad works. Barbra Streisand is working on her memoir. On Instragram people are baking bread and working out. Friends are calling to say that they’ve Marie-Kondo’d their homes. And all their getting-things-done is stressing me out. What this is is an epidemic of humble brags. People are knitting and…
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Fast Forward Family of Holocaust survivor mourns over wrong body
(JTA) — The family of a Brooklyn grandfather performed funeral rites for the wrong body due to a mix-up — but their upset turned to satisfaction for helping out a stranger with no one to grieve his loss. Moshe Grunwald, a Holocaust survivor who was the nephew of the Alter Tzelemer rebbe, the head of…
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Life I can lead the seder. I just need someone to teach the 90-year-olds Zoom.
Of course we’re going to have a seder. Our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents all had seders despite world wars and pogroms. A pandemic won’t stop us. Because we have Zoom. We’re all Zooming, right? Zoom work meetings. Zoom cocktails with friends. Zoom gym sessions. Zoom meditation. Our family favorite is our new tradition of…
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Yiddish אלי שאַרפֿשטיינס סאָוועטישע נאָך־מלחמהדיקע ליטע רעדט אויף ייִדישEli Sharfstein’s Soviet post-war Lithuania speaks Yiddish
די דערציילונגען אין „מײַן ווילנער זאַוווּליק“ שילדערן דאָס ייִדישע לעבן אינעם נאָכמלחמהדיקן ראַטן־פֿאַרבאַנד פֿון אַ פּערזענלעכן קוקווינקל.
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Culture A voice for his generation, Tom Lehrer found laughter even in the most sensitive aspects of Jewish life and history
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Fast Forward ‘I was first and foremost Jewish,’ said Wesley LePatner, killed in NYC shooting
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Fast Forward Americans’ support for Israel in Gaza plummets to record low, new Gallup poll finds
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