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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The Ethiopian Jewish holiday of Sigd is more relevant than ever
In the 1997 Seinfeld episode “The Strike,” George Castanza is embarrassed when his father Frank shamelessly promotes Festivus, a December 23 celebration that Frank created years ago in reaction to the other winter festivals in popular culture. The episode ends with George’s friends and enemies joining together at the Castanza home as Frank leads the…
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Celebrating Trump’s defeat with my Black Jewish daughter
I was sitting at my kitchen table when it was called. In true 2020 fashion, I was on a Zoom call with my colleagues. Applause broke out. Tears flowed and champagne was popped. I heard the streets of DC erupt in wild joy. I put on my sneakers and my mask and took my family…
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How one Sephardi synagogue is dealing with Covid
It was a delightful spring morning, warm, breezy, sunny, a perfect day for the park, the beach, or a picnic. We were enjoying the weather, sitting comfortably, some of us sipping coffee or tea. But we were not in a park or a beach. We were outdoors at our synagogue, Beth Abraham, in Brookline. We…
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When Tinder and Hinge become Ulpan: How I learned Hebrew through dating apps
Three weeks ago I packed up my life and moved from New York to Israel. During a pandemic. “You’re very brave,” people told me. “I could never do that.”. And for some reason, that felt less like a compliment and more like a prayer for my reckless behavior. A backhanded, Good luck, but you’re crazy….
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The joy of paying it forward
From a scholarship that funded my first trip to Israel as a teen to an incredibly generous grant from the Santa Barbara Jewish Community Foundation that allowed me to complete my studies at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), Jewish philanthropy has had a profoundly positive impact on my life. I can definitively say that without the…
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A question rarely asked: Would I have survived the Holocaust?
When the Germans bombed Warsaw in September, 1939, my family’s future was cancelled, but not their hopes. My father and grandparents barely survived and eventually escaped the Warsaw Ghetto, then were pursued by the Gestapo across the Polish countryside. As a second generation survivor, I have welcomed opportunities to share their story of dedication to…
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Sukkot in Dubai, thanks to the Abraham Accords
Shortly after Israel announced the peace accords with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), I spent the recent holidays with my family in Dubai. I have visited Dubai twice before, and on both occasions, I hid that I am Israeli. I traveled on my U.S. passport and I tried not to look too Jewish. Both times,…
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Saeb Erekat: the friend, the negotiator and the politician
Saeb Erekat leaves behind a complex legacy which I would divide into four parts. I knew him for about 27 years. The first legacy was Saeb, the person. I had so many conversations with him. I was convinced on a human level, he definitely wanted peace with Israel. He believed, even if the US was…
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Coronavirus has trapped children with their abusers; let’s get them out
Wendi Sklaver and her husband, Sam, considered becoming foster parents for more than 10 years. But with four biological children and busy lives, it seemed impossible. Until Sklaver discovered last year that her synagogue, Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, was forming a cohort of foster families. That community effort, Sklaver said, made the daunting…
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What a Jewish high school history teacher learned by speaking with Muslims
I grew up in the aftermath of the Holocaust. My fifth grade Talmud teacher had a tattoo from Auschwitz on his forearm. During the month of April, which commemorates the Holocaust, the lunchroom had photos from the ghettos and concentration camps hung on the walls. As a teenager, I visited the death camps and saw…
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My father had an MD from Harvard. How could he deprive me of an education?
When I was 14 years old, my father gave me a small, tattered book that was printed in 1829 by the Maskilim, the Jewish secular intellectuals. The book was part of a journal published by the Enlightenment Movement in Eastern Europe called “Bikurei Haitim.” When my father gave me the book, I was attending Oholei…
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