Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
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Art An artist in exile talks Tu B’Shvat tarot and working from her childhood home
During the pandemic, Jessica Tamar Deutsch has been considering exile as she relearns how to paint. Specifically, she’s been thinking about the title character in “The Lost Princess,” a story by Rabbi Nachman, the mystic founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, about a young woman who disappears from her home after displeasing her kingly father….
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Culture Jews plead, once again: Listen to the lyrics of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’
Another state occasion, another misuse of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Across the internet, fans of the poet are pleading: Stop the madness! On Jan. 19, 2021, before the reflecting pool by the Lincoln Memorial, gospel singer Yolanda Adams concluded a somber memorial to the over 400,000 Americans dead of Covid-19 with Cohen’s storied song of sex…
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News No refrigerators left: L.A.’s COVID-19 spike swamps Jewish mortuaries
On one recent Saturday night, mortuary director Moe Goldsman got his first call at 10 p.m., his second at 12:30 a.m., and his third at 1:45 a.m. He worked through the night and went to sleep at dawn. With coronavirus numbers skyrocketing in Southern California since Thanksgiving, Goldsman’s Sholom Mortuary is struggling to keep pace…
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News Mostly ignored, Jews of color turn to special fund for COVID relief
Editor’s note: In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Forward is resurfacing some of our recent coverage related to the Black-Jewish experience and racial justice. This article originally appeared in August, 2020. Some are trans Jews of color on the brink of homelessness. One is an African-American man who worked at a Jewish…
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News In California, rabbis ask why clergy aren’t in first — or second, or third — group for COVID-19 vaccination
As tens of thousands of vaccines are distributed to healthcare workers and the elderly across Los Angeles County, faith leaders are not in either of the top tiers, keeping them sidelined as the pandemic worsens through the winter months. “I’m baffled,” said Rabbi Elazar Muskin, who leads Young Israel of Century City, an Orthodox synagogue…
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Israel News Experts dismiss Israeli drive to vaccinate world’s Holocaust survivors as political stunt
An Israeli cabinet minister’s plan to vaccinate all 320,000 of the world’s remaining Holocaust survivors immediately drew harsh criticism from survivor advocates, former diplomats and public health experts, who accused her of floating the monumental effort to boost her political profile ahead of the country’s upcoming parliamentary election. The Shalom Corps, a non-profit jointly owned…
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Fast Forward Brad Schneider is third Democrat to contract COVID-19 after sheltering with Republicans during riot
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider became the third House Democrat to test positive for COVID-19 after sheltering in place with unmasked GOP colleagues during the Capitol riot last week. Schneider disclosed his positive test results on social media. “Wearing a mask is not a political statement, it is public health guidance, common courtesy, and simply what…
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Fast Forward Hasidic doctor spouts conspiracy theories, anti-vaccine sentiment in video
The Hasidic doctor behind an unsubstantiated treatment for coronavirus espoused anti-vaccine and conspiracist views in a video circulating on WhatsApp among Haredi, or Ultra-Orthodox Jews. Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, the man behind a treatment regimen involving the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine adopted by President Donald Trump, said in an undated interview with an Israeli rabbinical leader that…
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News Dutch Jews grapple with ‘weaponization’ of their fear following attack on Israelis
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News What a Secretary of State Marco Rubio would mean for American Jews and Israel
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Fast Forward Trump AG nominee Matt Gaetz has left a trail of antisemitic comments
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News Your complete guide to Trump’s Jewish advisers and pro-Israel cabinet
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Senate moves to pass contentious antisemitism bill targeting anti-Israel activity on campuses
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Opinion I studied in Amsterdam — the antisemitic violence there doesn’t surprise me
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Culture An Israeli woman in playing Mary in a Netflix movie — and the outcry is getting weird
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Opinion Mike Huckabee’s old-school Christian Zionism is bad news for anyone who wants Middle East peace
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