Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the Jewish holiday of Passover, also called Pesach.
Passover
The Latest
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Community The Passover story is real, because it has a real effect on the world
Everyone and everything, from person to nation, crafts a story of where they came from and where they want to go. It isn’t a question of whether our stories are fact or fiction, but rather of how they shape who we are today and want to become tomorrow. In other words: the stories we tell…
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Community Passover must inspire us to address the plague of hunger
This year has been a storm of enormous and unanticipated challenges, devastating loss and limited resources with which to respond. More than half a million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 in the past year, and millions more have suffered with illness, job loss and isolation from family and friends. In that sea…
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Opinion Entering Passover under the plague of vaccine guilt
As I unpack my Passover dishes and prepare to host a Seder that includes my aging parents — an enormous luxury compared to last year’s Zoom-only reality at the start of the pandemic — I find myself facing waves of an unfamiliar feeling. Vaccine guilt: That’s the guilt you get when you’re vaccinated and other…
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News Former Soviet Union Jews eat pounds of matzah per person — the most in the world — every year. Here’s why.
(JTA) — When it comes to consuming matzah, the Jews of the former Soviet Union are in a league of their own. At the top of the chart are Azerbaijan’s 8,000 Jews, who this year are expected to consume 10 tons of the unleavened bread cracker that Jews eat on the week of Passover to…
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Fast Forward Biden, Harris, Doug Emhoff speak at White House Passover celebration
President Joe Biden made an appearance at the White House Passover celebration on Thursday, telling the nearly 10,000 virtual attendees one way in which this year’s seder is different from all others: “Not only ‘next year in Jerusalem,’ but ‘next year in person!’” “As we seek to rebuild from a time of struggle and loss,…
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Community What I hope we learn from two Passovers in social distancing exile
Last year, as we prepared for our first physically distanced Seder, I wrote a poem, my first ever, about the ritualistic importance of U’rchatz: handwashing, in times of a pandemic. It ends with: To remember all those who have lost or have been lost. Tonight, we wash our hands for ourselves, and for others, We…
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Culture This Passover, honor 5 women who made the Exodus possible
This Passover we can honor the tenacity of Miriam, the agency and pain of Yocheved and the commitment of Batya — women whose efforts helped lead us out of Egypt. After all, we owe them. Though they were pivotal to Moses in his efforts to shepherd our people out of bondage, these figures are given…
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Food You know what your seder plate needs this year? Uyghur salad.
What makes Passover different from all other holidays? On other holidays, we pray, then eat a festive meal. On Passover, the festive meal is the celebration, food itself is the prayer. We eat matzah to recall our enslavement and liberation, bitter herbs to recount our sorrow and haroset our hardship. We taste slavery and freedom,…
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Fast Forward ‘Rabbi rebellion’: 33 Orthodox rabbis endorse Harris
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Opinion I was a Bernie supporter. This year, I’m voting Trump. Here’s why liberal Jews like me made the switch
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Opinion Here’s why Orthodox Jews are loyal to Trump — even if they don’t love him
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FIRST PERSON As a rabbi, he helped others mourn. So why wouldn’t his daughter say kaddish for him?
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