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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Community Is there any good time to publish a book during a pandemic?
“Timing is everything.” Larry Cohler-Esses wrote that line in 1995 in a Forward news story about my book contract with Simon and Schuster. I was the American Jewish Committee’s expert on antisemitism at the time. I had written a report on the militia movement ten days before the Oklahoma City bombing predicting attacks on government…
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Community This isn’t about the bagel, nor the seltzer man
For me, it was a bagel – my last taste of normalcy before the “new normal” arrived, eaten mere hours before NYC effectively cancelled the school year for my children. The inevitable was fast approaching — had arrived in fact — and I was just slow to accept it. (Weeks later, my dad would die….
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Culture Why Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Kaddish’ is the perfect poem for these times
In this spring of fear and torment, COVID Spring, a spring when we mourn our dead, Jews are saying Kaddish too many times. When I grew up in a casually Jewish household we lit yahrzeit candles, and nothing focused my thoughts on the passing of all things like the familiar melody of Kaddish, As I…
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News Nightfall brings curfews — and fear of going to the mikveh
Sunday night was mikveh night for C., an Orthodox Jewish woman in Manhattan — it was time for her monthly immersion in the ritual bath. The practice is a foundational part of the Orthodox Jewish family, allowing husbands and wives to resume sexual activity after a woman’s menstrual period. But C. — who asked that…
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Fast Forward These Jewish groups are planning events in solidarity with black communities
As protests against police violence escalate across America, some Jewish institutions are beginning to plan virtual events in solidarity with black communities. BASE Manhattan, an New York-based organization that hosts events for young Jews, will host an online rally on June 4 in conjunction with JCC Harlem, Jewish Theological Seminary, Jews for Racial and Economic…
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Community People say coronavirus is like prison. I can tell you: it’s not.
I live in New York City which is at the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic. I wear a face mask to walk my dog every day. People pass by and our dogs sniff each other while we chat from a social distance, and more than one dog owner has told me that they feel like…
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Community I graduated early to hike the Appalachian Trail. Now I’m stuck inside.
I should have been on the Appalachian Trail right now. I am a high school graduate and have been for the last six months — I finished high school a semester early in order to start the Appalachian Trail in April 2020, planning to then begin college after a gap year. Ditching my senior prom…
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Life ‘If not now, when?’ Thousands of American Jews apply to move to Israel in pandemic
More American Jews applied to immigrate to Israel or inquired about it in May than in any single month over the last two decades, according to Nefesh B’Nefesh, a nonprofit organization that promotes Jewish immigration to Israel. Despite aliyah being stalled by the office closures, canceled flights and quarantine requirements because of the coronavirus pandemic,…
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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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Opinion Trump’s first picks are die-hard Israel supporters, mocking the pro-Palestinian protest vote
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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 Will Scharf, co-founder of ‘Jews Against Soros,’ is Trump’s new White House staff secretary
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Opinion Trump wants prayer in schools. The Bible tells us how dangerous that is
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Opinion Will Trump’s efforts to fight antisemitism help degrade democracy?
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Culture A Jewish snowman movie would have made a lot more sense than Netflix’s ‘Hot Frosty’
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