Scribe, the Forward’s curated contributor network, is a place for showcasing personal experiences and perspective from across our Jewish communities. Here you will find a wide array of reflections on Jewish issues, life-cycle events, spirituality, culture and more.
Community
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You say matzah — and matzo and matzuh and matzee and more
Readers respond to our editor-in-chief’s column about a Passover copy-editing conundrum
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Jonah, Reimagined
The Jonah story, traditionally read on Yom Kippur is often explained as being about repentance. However, in truth it’s mostly the tale of a troubled guy who feels called by God, but at the same time has serious issues with his calling. He’s cranky, rebellious, cynical, mean-spirited, and petulant. Further, the story has much in…
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Why I Chose To Attend Public High School Even Though I’m Ultra-Orthodox
Noticing the black velvet yarmulke atop my dark brown hair, many of the students at my new school assumed that I was Muslim. In the beginning of my freshman year, I enrolled in Baltimore City College High School (“City”) in Baltimore, Maryland after attending ultra-Orthodox schools or “yeshivas” in Maryland for the prior 14 years….
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The Continued Creep Of Israeli Annexation Threatens Prospects For Peace
On October 29, Israeli ministers were set to vote on the “Greater Jerusalem” bill, which would have annexed several large settlements into the Jerusalem municipality. The vote was ultimately postponed, reportedly due to American pressure. But slower, less dramatic steps toward annexation are happening constantly — and for the most part, the Trump administration has…
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Remembering The Carnage And Crises Of The Crown Heights Riots
Twenty five years ago, on October 29, 1992, Lemrick Nelson Jr. was acquitted of the murder of Yankel Rosenbaum. That event — as well as others that both preceded and followed it — had a significant impact on my life, stirring up a host of personal memories and evoking a chapter in the larger story…
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Our Jewish Responsibility To Help The Rohingya
I have been haunted for weeks by a photo of a Rohingya woman mourning her dead baby on the shores of Bangladesh. This photo appeared in The Huffington Post in late September, and I’ve seen dozens of similarly disturbing images on the Internet every day. This mother and child were among the more than half…
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What Anti-Israel Protestors Get Wrong About The Balfour Declaration
The campaign waged by Palestinians and their supporters to demand that Britain apologize for the Balfour Declaration, a century after it was issued, betrays yet again their fundamental misunderstanding of how and why the modern state of Israel came into being. Israel is the outcome of deliberate Jewish action – not of foreign hand-outs. Israel…
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How To Engage Individuals With Disabilities In The Jewish Community
The Jewish New Year starts literally with a blast. On Rosh Hashanah we are commanded to listen to the kol, the voice, of the shofar. We are instructed to listen to each distinct sound. Listening extends beyond the physical ability to hear. It is about focused attention and a desire to reflect and understand. To…
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Beware The Jewish Woke Misogynist
The recent, long overdue accountability of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment of women, and the #metoo speakout on social media, has reignited questions and concerns about power, complicity and abuse. When people envision a typical caricature of an abusive partner, often it is assumed that an abuser is a stereotypical politically conservative heterosexual male…
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Why I’m Flying Halfway Around The World For A Peace Rally In Rabin Square
I knew of Yitzhak Rabin, the former Prime Minister of Israel, as a peacemaker before I knew of him as a warrior. In my family and in my community, that first attribute was far more important than the second. Like all Diaspora Jews, we had grown up in the shadow of Israel’s wars. Like all…
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The Visceral Charm Of Nelson Algren
Algren: A Life By Mary Wisniewski Chicago Review Press, 384 pages, $30.00 In the Jewish mystical tradition, or Kabbalah, words are the active ingredient of the mortal physical world and the building blocks of creation. The Almighty literally spoke the world we all know into existence. A competent mystic would create amulets for protection, banishment…
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100 Years Later, The Balfour Declaration Still Resonates
For lovers of the State of Israel, this has been a year of celebrating milestone anniversaries: the 120th anniversary of the first Zionist Congress; the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration; the 70th anniversary of the U.N. Resolution supporting the founding of a Jewish state; the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War.; and the…
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Fast Forward US to send troops to Israel as Hezbollah ramps up its attack
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