Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.
Ari Feldman
By Ari Feldman
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News Georgia’s election-weary Jewish community is ready for another fight
The next high stakes election is in Georgia, and the Jewish community is ready for it. Local synagogues and political groups are planning efforts to get people who will turn 18 before the vote to register. The Republican Jewish Coalition has raised money and is sending staff over from Florida. The Anti-Defamation League is monitoring…
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News ‘Biden’s rabbi’ says everyone must be patient, as the Children of Israel learned to do in the desert
Rabbi Michael Beals has an exceptionally soothing voice, which has come in handy this week. The man known as “Biden’s rabbi” has spent most of the week trying to keep the members of his synagogue, Cong. Beth Shalom, in Wilmington, Del., from tearing the hair out of their heads. Beals met Biden at a basement…
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News Think you know how Jews voted for president? The data is still not clear.
A clutch of polls on and around Election 2020 indicate that Jewish support for Democratic candidates is still stable. “They’re not really different numbers,” said Professor Leonard Saxe, director of the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University. “They are in line with the more-or-less 70-30 split between Democrats and Republicans that has been in…
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News American Jews, deeply concerned about election outcome, wait for answers
Rabbi Joshua Heller was trying to settle into a Tuesday evening Zoom class on the Cairo Geniza, the ancient archive of Jewish life, but his congregants had more contemporary concerns on their mind. “People were like, ‘But we have to watch the results,’” said Heller, senior rabbi of Cong. B’nai Torah, outside of Atlanta. “I…
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News Join these Torah study sessions for meaning, hope and an alternative to election-night doomscrolling
Storefront windows are being boarded up. The New York Times election needle of doom is back. On Election Day in 2020, the country is a ball of anxiety. Jews know a thing or two about political anxiety. This year, to counter it, some are turning to Torah study and spirituality to give themselves something to…
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News In Brooklyn virus ‘red zone,’ why do some posters only tell healthy people to get tested?
When Borough Park, the hub of Orthodox Jewish life in South Brooklyn, was included in a designated coronavirus “red zone” in South Brooklyn earlier this month, its rate of positive tests for coronavirus was 10.6% — more than five times New York City’s overall rate. For the past three weeks, Borough Park’s leaders — rabbis,…
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Fast Forward Jon Ossoff goes viral after taking opponent to task on virus in debate
Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Georgia, went viral on Thursday with a video of him dressing down his opponent, incumbent Sen. David Perdue, during their debate the prior evening. “Well, perhaps Senator Perdue would have been able to better respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, if you hadn’t been fending off multiple…
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Fast Forward Cuomo eases COVID-19 restrictions in upstate Hasidic hub despite concerns that some refuse to test
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo eased restrictions Wednesday on the coronavirus “red zone” centered on the Hasidic hub of Kiryas Joel, N.Y., while leaving other red zones in Brooklyn and Rockland County — also surrounding large Orthodox Jewish areas — intact. Kiryas Joel’s red zone, in Orange County, which limited religious gatherings of any kind…
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News Dutch Jews grapple with ‘weaponization’ of their fear following attack on Israelis
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Opinion Almost all voting groups shifted toward Trump, except American Jews. Why?
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Fast Forward ‘Antisemitic hit-and-run squads’: Amsterdam temporarily bans demonstrations after Israeli soccer fans attacked by street mobs
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Culture Why is the latest Jesus movie about, uh, mixed martial arts?
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