Shiva
The Latest
-
News How to sit shiva while social distancing
For centuries, sitting shiva has provided Jewish mourners a meaningful ritual to gain closure after the death of a loved one. When you’ve just suffered a loss, it’s supremely comforting to have other people around — people to keep you fed, people to play with your kids, people with whom to share treasured family stories….
-
Opinion Editorial | We’re going to have to show up without showing up
I paid a shiva call Friday morning. It was a somewhat absurd thing to do, in the hours before President Trump officially declared a national emergency, in this new era of social distancing: trek across state lines from my home in Montclair, N.J., to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It was also the most…
-
Fast Forward As many as 100 shiva attendees exposed to coronavirus in Maryland
One of three residents of Montgomery County, Md. who contracted the coronavirus on a cruise in Egypt attended a Jewish mourning ritual at a retirement community before before getting diagnosed with the disease and exposed between 70 and 100 attendees to it. In the ritual, known as sitting shiva, family members of the deceased receive…
-
Life What to bring to a shiva call
After a Jewish funeral, families typically commemorate the deceased loved one by sitting shiva for seven days, during which they stay at home and welcome guests to mourn with them and share memories. It can be daunting to make a shiva call, or visit a family in mourning. But the most helpful thing you can…
-
Life How to light a Yahrzeit Candle
Judaism provides several rituals to guide families through the difficult days and months after a loved one’s death. During shiva, the first seven days after a funeral, mourners gather in their homes with friends and family. For the next thirty days, a period known as sheloshim, they avoid parties and public entertainment. Even after these…
-
Fast Forward Biden Fundraising Letter Features Rabbi’s Story About Senator Making Shiva Call
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Delaware rabbi wrote a fundraising endorsement for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign citing his appearance at the shiva for a constituent of modest means. Rabbi Michael Beals was leading a minyan in 2006 for Sylvia Greenhouse, who lived in a senior living facility in Claymont, a town at the northern tip of…
-
The Schmooze Dead On: 10 Times Movies Got Jewish Funerals And Shivas Right
From dust we came, and to dust we shall return. And in between, a little popcorn maybe? Jewish death traditions are their own kind of immersive theater — a powerful group performance that calls for a set, props, costumes, special effects, and a grueling schedule. That high drama is no doubt why filmmakers and TV…
-
Life The Forward Guide To Sitting Shiva
Not to be confused with Shiva, one of main Hindu deities, Shiva in Judaism is the week of mourning following the death of a family member. It is colloquially referred to as “sitting shiva,” in reference to the low stools that mourners are required to sit on in observance of the mourning period. In Judaism,…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Fast Forward Jewish Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky reportedly to retire after 26 years in office
-
Culture In Germany, a Jewish family is reunited with a treasured family object — but also a sense of exile
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
