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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News The Humbling
The last time I spent Passover locked in a room I was 9 years old. My uncle refused to let me sit at the Seder table so long as I insisted on wearing a Mets cap instead of a yarmulke. To this day I’m not sure whether he exiled me because he was a stickler…
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News Efry Levy Azizoff, 66, didn’t want to worry his friends as he grew ill with coronavirus
(JTA) — Hours before he was rushed to hospital in Milan because of the coronavirus, Efry Levy Azizoff was chatting on the phone with his friend Amichai Lazarov. Azizoff was already feeling unwell, yet he didn’t even mention it, Lazarov recalled. “I felt that something was off, but you conveyed nothing about your discomfort,” Lazarov…
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Life One rabbi reports: here’s how our e-minyan found its groove
In the beginning of March, before the full impact of COVID-19 began to descend upon our country, and our consciousness, when it was still possible to speak about it seriously-but-also-lightly, I gave a sermon on Shabbat morning entitled “Intimacy without Touch.” In it, I valorized the Jewish instinct, honed over centuries and played out through…
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Opinion Thank you, Sheldon Adelson
If you had told me two weeks ago that Sheldon Adelson would emerge from the coronavirus crisis a hero, I would not have believed you. A casino mogul worth close to $40 billion, Adelson is most famous for funding Republican and right-wing political campaigns and movements; he was the largest single donor in both the…
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News Rabbi Neil Kraft, 69, was beloved by Londoners from all walks of life
(JTA) — Neil Kraft’s smile was one of his most effective tools as a rabbi, people who knew him said. Kraft’s warmth was also the reason that many people from very different faiths and backgrounds were pained by his death at the age of 69 from the coronavirus in London, where he had for 17…
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News Judith Lowin, 76, was a retired nurse and proud Hadassah member
(JTA) — Judith Lowin, 76, a retired nurse from Riverdale, New York, died on Saturday, March 21, 2020, of coronavirus. A longtime resident of Monsey, New York, Lowin was married to Joseph Lowin and had three grown children, Shari, David and Benjamin, and several grandchildren. The funeral took place March 23 and was broadcast live…
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News Steve Steiner, 75, was public relations director for the Orthodox Union
(JTA) — For many New York-area Jewish journalists, Steve Steiner was the name attached to press releases for the Orthodox Union for over a decade. But to his colleagues, he was the kind and friendly man who arrived at the office each day wearing his trademark New York Yankees cap and toting a doorstop of…
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Opinion ‘Is Hashem upset at you? Is that why you’re davening at home?’ The challenges of teaching Jewish values during a pandemic
My kids have been wondering why I’m around this much. They have always watched me going to yeshiva to study and teach. They’ve seen me go to synagogue three times a day for their entire young lives. My wife and I have tried to explain this unique situation to them, but they’re still a little…
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News A pioneering Reform synagogue makes way for a booming Iranian Jewish community
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News Hampshire College closure reverberates for alumni who treasured a Yiddishist hub
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Opinion Who’s responsible for deadly antisemitism? Everyone will hate the answer
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Opinion Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it.
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Steeped in history, Pensacola Jews celebrate the 150th anniversary of Florida’s oldest synagogue
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Fast Forward Rahm Emanuel joins calls for end to US ‘financial aid’ to Israel
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Fast Forward Michigan Democrats nominate Eli Savit, progressive Jewish prosecutor, for state attorney general
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Fast Forward At soldiers’ graves, the rows keep growing: Israel’s Memorial Day is shaped by new loss
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