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 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….
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Culture Daily distraction: Make this Passover a celebration
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. Happy Passover. For many of us, it’s going to be a weird one. As we’ve…
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Opinion I repressed my parents’ final Seder before Auschwitz – until coronavirus
My parents were among the few: a married couple who survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing machine, a string of slave labor camps and death marches. In March 1944, the Nazis marched into their Hungarian hometown of Sevlus, a prosperous agricultural city surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains. Liquidating its Jews was a top priority, pursued with industrial…
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Community Feeling the Passover spirit even in quarantine
I have a confession to make: as a working mom, Passover is my least favorite holiday. It evokes images of endless cooking, cleaning, and arcane restrictions with the added pressure of making the holiday meaningful for my children. Furthermore, as an American married to a Frenchman and living in the Netherlands, the idea of spending…
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Culture Reading Wordsworth in quarantine
At the tail end of my first year out of college, my then-boyfriend and I had a serious conversation about where we wanted to move. We’d stayed in St. Louis after graduating, but it was time to go. I wanted New York. He wanted San Francisco. We sat face-to-face on my bed, in my sweet…
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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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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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Yiddish World Interviews with Holocaust survivors reveal the richness of Yiddish
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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