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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‘Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews,’ 33 years later
This week, 33 years ago, I stood on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for the first time in my life, amid 250,000 American Jews and allies, listening to the legendary refusenik Natan Sharansky speak. “No missiles and tanks, no camps and prisons can extinguish the candle of freedom,” he told the throngs of people….
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For Central Europe’s Jews, Hanukkah is a way of life
For some Jews, “from generation to generation” is the most exhausted expression in Jewish life. Pointing to some endless chain of faceless ancestors passing on traditions like lighting the Menorah is stale routine and taken for granted. Some Jews wish they were that lucky. Indeed, some of us are the first and second generation of…
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An open letter to my non-observant son
My beautiful boy, I received your note today about our upcoming visit this weekend with surprise, and with sadness. Of course I have known for a long time that you do not observe the religious aspects of Judaism, so it was not a surprise that you said you’d be leaving our house to return home…
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It’s time for the Jewish community to make a big push for Jews marrying Jews
You can find another perspective on this crucial topic here. It has been precisely 30 years since the National Jewish Population Study of 1990 created a seismic earthquake within the United States Jewish community. The survey revealed an intermarriage rate of 52%. This was a significant growth from the estimated 44% during the years between…
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In the Senate runoff, Georgia’s Jews have no one to vote for.
All eyes are on the state of Georgia, where two senate races are currently in a runoff. Should the two Democrats — Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock — prevail against Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the U.S. Senate will be controlled by the Democrats, making it an extremely high-stakes election. Unfortunately for Georgia’s Jews,…
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Why I, a Republican, am (reluctantly) voting for Pastor Warnock in the Georgia election
I had been a Republican for many years when Donald Trump came along. I could not bring myself to jump aboard Trump Train, thanks to my derision and disdain for the man, and during the 2016 election, I ended up writing in Nebraska GOP Senator Ben Sasse and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (I lived in…
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Republican Jews like me are being chased out of synagogues
Of all the synagogues I belonged to during my lifetime, it was in Asheville, North Carolina that I found my “Jewish home.” When I joined the local synagogue in 2014, they put a short biography about new members in their newsletter so existing members were aware of newcomers. They also had a welcoming ceremony at…
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From Kamala and Doug to Biden’s grandkids, it’s time to be thankful for interfaith families
You probably know by now that Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris and First Husband-Elect Doug Emhoff are part of a Jewish interfaith couple. And President-Elect Joe Biden’s grandkids are all Jewish, after each of his children married a Jewish spouse. Biden’s incoming Chief of Staff Ron Klain is also part of a Jewish interfaith couple, making…
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Why would the government of Israel undermine the legacy of Yad Vashem?
The proposed nomination of Effie Eitam to head Yad Vashem would irrevocably wound Israel and the Jewish people’s memorial to the Holocaust. It will seriously weaken Israel’s ability to invoke the moral authority conferred on the Jewish people by that event. The move is unwise and undermines the memory of the Shoah’s victims and the…
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Why my friend Ali Mayorkas will be an ideal Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
I first met Alejandro Mayorkas nearly two decades ago when he was an attorney with the international law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. This was well before his rise to national prominence. He came to visit me in my office at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. We each spoke of our memories,…
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Remember Thanksgivvukah? This year, let’s try Shabbosgiving
Chances are, you have never heard of Shabbosgiving. It is likely that no one near you ever made mention of Challoween either, which is my own personal mash-up of Halloween, Jewish-style. Yet everyone probably knows about Thanksgivukkah, which entered the lexicon in 2013, when Hanukkah and Thanksgiving coincided. That coincidence last occurred in 1888 and…
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