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.
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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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On Tu B’Shvat, why trees are the urban infrastructure project we desperately need
In 2021, we need to heed the tenets of Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish “New Year of the Trees,” perhaps more now than any time in our history. Humans have always relied on nature — forests, watersheds, meadows, rivers, lakes and oceans — to create and provide a safe and viable habitat for humans and critters…
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Poland is planning a Museum of the Warsaw Ghetto. As sons of survivors, we object.
On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, we, sons and grandsons of survivors, write to protest the falsification of history being perpetrated in our name at the projected Museum of the Warsaw Ghetto, due to open in 2023 for the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Museum’s published mission is “To disseminate knowledge about the…
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What COVID taught me about Tu B’Shvat
Smirking from behind my mask, I inaudibly mumbled in the direction of a stranger passing by with his nose sticking out atop his: “Did you know that your nostrils are a part of your respiratory system?” It was a moment of disbelief for me. What’s so hard about wearing your mask properly? I can’t keep…
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To unite our country, we don’t need a politician – we need a theology.
In his inaugural speech, President Joe Biden called for unity. “We have never, ever, ever, ever failed in America when we’ve acted together,” he said But President Biden cannot unite America – at least not alone. To heal America, to unite our country, we don’t need a politician – we need a theology. There has…
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Tu B’Shvat teaches us we each must take on the obligation of addressing climate change
Amid today’s climate catastrophe, Tu B’Shvat offers us a chance to consider our role as environmental caretakers. This past year, news of droughts and deluges, fires and floods, has woven itself across our news feeds in an unending parade of devastation that can only be described as biblical in proportion. But what should the role…
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YMCAs and JCCs are struggling. But communities rely on them.
Millions of American of every racial, economic, and religious group have slowly been coming back to their local YMCAs and JCCs. Shuttered in March because of the pandemic, gymnasiums, fitness centers, pools and early childhood centers — which help people stay healthy and connected under normal circumstances — have lost hundreds of millions of dollars…
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Meet Biden’s first rabbi, Rabbi Leonard Gewirtz
Most of the Jews in my former hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, as well as expats like me, would probably concur that President Joe Biden has shown up for them throughout his four-plus decades as Delaware’s senator — attending synagogue events, giving briefings on his many trips to Israel at the JCC, and even making unexpected…
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Raphael Warnock becomes a member of a select club — pastor politician
Raphael Warnock, by winning Georgia’s Senate election against U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, will join Republican Sen. James Lankford as one of two ordained ministers in the Senate chamber. Only about 2% of members of the U.S. House of Representatives are ordained ministers. Their numbers are scarce despite the fact that members of the clergy often…
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I’m an Orthodox Trump critic — and I won’t let him rip my community apart
In 2016, a shoe shopping expedition with my mother turned political. A pair of navy shoes from the clearance aisle called my name. My mother, a card-carrying liberal and an Orthodox woman, balked. The reason for her disdain? These were Ivanka Trump shoes, with the name of The Donald’s favorite child clearly labeled on the…
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Major leader of AEPi, historically Jewish fraternity, must cut ties with far-right Turning Point USA
The crowd that descended upon the nation’s legislative branch last week was made up of violent right- wing extremists, white supremacists, antisemites and conspiracy theorists. Among the sponsors of the Jan. 6 rally was Turning Point USA (TPUSA). Charlie Kirk, who founded the organization in 2012, claimed in a since-deleted post on Twitter that the…
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Eulogy: Naomi Levine, civil rights activist, NYU doyen and ‘force of nature’
The shortest job interview I ever had was with the most powerful woman in the world, Naomi B. Levine, who died today at age 98. Naomi was Senior Vice President for External Affairs at New York University, and I was a young rabbi hoping to serve as executive director of the Edgar M. Bronfman Center…
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Yiddish אַ זעלטענע זאַך אין פּאַריז — אַ קאָנפֿערענץ בלויז וועגן די ליטוואַקעסA rare event in Paris — a conference just about the Litvaks
צוליב דעם וואָס ס׳רובֿ פּאַריזער אַשכּנזים שטאַמען פֿון פּוילן, קומט די ליטוויש־ייִדישע קולטור נישט אָפֿט צו רייד
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