Coronavirus: Health policy wins and losses among Rockland’s Orthodox community

Three weeks ago, after speaking with a physician friend who works for a pharmaceutical company, Rabbi Shmuel Gancz made “a simple calculation” and closed his synagogue before any edict from elected officials. If the coronavirus led to even 1% of the county’s 325,000 residents needing hospitalization, and hospitals in adjoining counties refused Rockland’s cases, Gancz thought, the […]

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Aspen Shortsfest 2020: Ed Asner and local filmmaker educate kids about the Holocaust

Aspen-based visual artist Marc Bennett’s debut film will screen at 2020 Aspen Shortsfest. Bennett’s animated short adaptation of the children’s book “The Tattooed Torah” is in the family-friendly Program Nine of the Oscar-qualifying festival, which has gone virtual this year as the coronavirus pandemic has shuttered public spaces including the Wheeler Opera House, where Shortsfest […]

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Chabad of OC serves community virtually

CHESTER – Due to the coronavirus, synagogues, like all places of gathering, have temporarily closed their doors. But Chabad of Orange County at 1170 Route 17M, Suite 1 in Chester, does not see it as closing doors, but rather as opening new ones. “Hundreds of new synagogues have opened in Orange County,” said Rabbi Pesach […]

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Sitting Shiva Alone: The Power of One

The last time I sat shiva in the most unfortunate and tragic circumstances, we were 14 mourners. As my mother neared a full century of life, I knew that the next time I would sit shiva, I would be the sole mourner. I am an only child. What I could NOT have foreseen was that […]

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Clergy Connects With Congregations Despite Empty Pews

It’s almost unthinkable that a priest or minister would be alone in a church on Palm Sunday and Easter morning. But that’s what scores of clergy members across the area and thousands more around the United States are facing the next two Sundays, and who knows how many more Sundays after that. The health catastrophe […]

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Siyum for Firstborns in the Age of Corona

Question There is an ancient custom for Jewish firstborns to fast on the day before Passover (read why here) until they participate in a siyum (the completion of a tractate of Talmud) or another mitzvah celebration. It is customary to arrange a siyum in the synagogue after morning prayers to allow the firstborns to eat […]

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Worship around Gainesville amid coronavirus moves online

Alachua County churches, synagogues and mosques adapt in tumultuous times so followers can keep the faith as holidays approach. Father Lawrence Peck says he can’t remember a time at St. Patrick’s Church when Mass wasn’t celebrated. But last week, leaders at Gainesville’s oldest Catholic church locked the doors of the Northeast 16th Avenue house of […]

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9 Common Myths and Misconceptions About Matzah

If there is one Jewish food that virtually every Jew knows about, it’s matzah, the flat bread eaten at the Passover Seders and for the duration of the eight-day holiday. But how well do you know this food, which has been with us since the dawn of our peoplehood? Here are some of our favorite […]

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Mix-up leads to wrong corona funeral in New York

Moshe Grunwald lived a full and long life. A scion of the Pupa Chassidic dynasty, he survived Auschwitz and the Nazi death marches, rebuilding his family and his life in America. A longtime resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., he passed away this week as dozens were felled by the coronavirus. The family was told that the funeral […]

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