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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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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Culture Daily distraction: Put on a play at home!
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. There’s no way around it — this is going to be a very tough week, which…
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Life There are heroes all around us — meet three of them
We see them on social media and in family group chats. We hear about them when we call our friends or talk with a neighbor across the street. They’re churning out homemade masks on their sewing machines or babysitting the children of emergency responders. They’re delivering groceries to neighbors or risking infection to keep soup…
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Culture Passover in the time of the plague
My daughter just saw her first rainbow. We stood between the sun and the drizzle and I pronounced the words of the blessing: “Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, who remembers the covenant, and is faithful to His covenant, and keeps His promise.” I’d always been puzzled by the language —…
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Life Zoom Seders are far from ideal, says this psychologist. But here’s how to make the best of it.
In a dramatic ruling this month, Orthodox rabbis in Israel permitted families separated by Covid-19 to join each other for Seder via streaming video. This overturned two centuries of Orthodox practice, which prohibits use of electrical appliances on Sabbath and Festivals. The rabbis invoked the principle of piquah nefesh – saving life. They feared that…
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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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Opinion If Israel reinstates the death penalty, it will betray Jewish values — and Jewish history
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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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