This is the Forward’s coverage of synagogues, Jewish houses of worship.
Synagogues
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Fast Forward Park East: Fired rabbi says accusations of synagogue coup are ‘completely unfounded, and personally hurtful’
(JTA) In his first public comments since being fired from Park East Synagogue two weeks ago, Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt defended himself against charges of an “insurrection” and illegal activity and raised concerns about his former congregation’s future. Goldschmidt was abruptly fired from Park East, the wealthy Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, by the…
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Opinion Want to fill seats in shul? Take a lesson from southern evangelicals
It will not surprise anyone that Christianity is alive and well in the South. Take a stroll on a Sunday morning in Little Rock and you’ll see groups of young, markedly hip people with tattoos and asymmetrical haircuts gathering and chatting every few blocks. Children are everywhere, and the cheer is so contagious, you’d think…
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News Synagogues scramble as Delta throws a wrench into High Holiday planning
Earlier this summer, Rabbi Joe Hample began writing a High Holiday sermon he can no longer deliver. The theme was “thank God the pandemic is receding,’” said Hample, who leads Tree of Life in Morgantown, West Virginia. “And now the pandemic is bouncing back so I have to change the sermon. I’m torn between panic…
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Opinion Drug addiction took my congregant’s life. We can stop others from suffering in silence
Having this conversation is going to save a life — and likely more than one. Nearly 100,000 people died from a drug overdose in the United States last year, a dramatic increase from 2019. While the stress of the pandemic likely drove many to despair, it’s also a fact, proven over and over again, that…
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Opinion Facing the Delta variant, my congregants are lonely and afraid. We are making hard choices together
As a rabbi, I want to do the right thing for my congregation. But what is the right thing? I am the spiritual leader of a small synagogue in Sarasota, Fla. My congregation is older, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been especially devastating to them. The unexpected isolation was bad enough, but when it continued…
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News ‘Eager to get back to normal’: Are vaccine passports the key to returning to synagogue?
Last weekend, one Orthodox synagogue in Atlanta launched a new opportunity for congregants. While Congregation Beth Jacob had been holding socially distanced and masked in-person prayer services for months, for those members who have been fully vaccinated, there would now be a chance to join a non-distanced, non-masked minyan. The synagogue is not requiring a…
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News An Orthodox synagogue and a Black church search for shared history with a walk through a once-integrated neighborhood
Editor’s note: In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Forward is resurfacing some of our recent coverage related to the Black-Jewish experience and racial justice. This article originally appeared in August, 2020. Half of the students in the Zoom class were from Liberty Grace Church of God, a Black Baptist church in Baltimore….
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News Pinched by the pandemic, congregants are cutting synagogues dues from their household budgets
Across denominations and across the United States, Jewish families under financial pressure from the coronavirus pandemic are deciding that synagogue dues are an expense they can cut. “More congregations are seeing declines in members than are seeing growth,” said Amy Asin, vice-president of Strengthening Congregations, the synagogue advising arm at the Union of Reform Judaism….
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