This is the Forward’s coverage of synagogues, Jewish houses of worship.
Synagogues
The Latest
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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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Fast Forward Self-described ‘skinhead’ pleads guilty to trying to blow up a Colorado synagogue
(JTA) — A man who plotted to blow up a synagogue in Colorado has pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes and explosives charges. Richard Holzer, a self-described “skinhead” and former Ku Klux Klan member who used Facebook to promote white supremacy, was arrested last November for plotting to blow up a 100-year-old synagogue in Pueblo,…
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News As Israel and UAE make peace, Dubai Jewish community flourishes
Some called it “the underground synagogue,” but the sanctuary of the Jewish Community of the Emirates would be familiar to Jews anywhere in the world. During a recent service, several rows of chairs seat a group of around 10 men and women in separated sections. The chairs surround a simple table on which sits the…
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News “There’s no going back’ What rabbis learned from the extraordinary High Holidays of 2020
I am not a rabbi — but am I proud of my colleagues who are. Along with cantors, soloists, educators, executive directors, board donors and laypeople in hundreds of congregations and spiritual communities, they pulled off one of the most extraordinary historic pivots in synagogue life. “This is epic,” Rabbi Steven Leder of Wilshire Boulevard…
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