Coronavirus / COVID-19

I received my bar mitzvah at the age of 74 via a Zoom video call with Chabad Rabbi Levi Gerlitzky, here in Kona, Hawaii.

With the sounds of the shofar already being heard each day during the month Elul, some can hear the echoes of the upcoming Rosh Hashanah prayers in anticipation of the holiday, which begins this year before sundown on Monday, Sept. 6. The High Holidays ar...

JOHANNESBURG—Umhlanga is a small, idyllic beach town on the east coast of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. For its residents, Umhlanga is home, where the everyday hustle and bustle of life takes place. But for a few weeks during the July winter holi...

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” (Psalms 133) In my childhood, I struggled with a sense of belonging. Perhaps due to the open anti-Semitism that we experienced in the Soviet Union, I never felt that I belo...

In a year of a global pandemic, you might think that an unexpected national glue shortage would not be that big of a deal—after all, the year has seen a range of odd shortages. But for 20,000 Jewish families isolated in their homes for Passover, it could ...

As the coronavirus pandemic was beginning to spread through North America a year ago, Rabbi Nechemia and Raizel Schusterman were starting to plan for their 18th year of service to the Jewish community of Peabody, Mass. Located in the state’s North Shore r...

A powerful lesson from the far-reaching impact of the Covid-19 virus.

As the world peeks its head out from underneath the coronavirus pandemic with vaccines gaining steam in many places, prospects look positive for celebrations on Lag BaOmer—the Jewish holiday that has become a family festival celebrated outdoors the world ...

From Red to Orange to White and then back to Red, the coronavirus “zones” in Italy are constantly in flux, upending the lives of millions as they try to navigate an ever-changing set of rules, just as they did one year ago. As conditions change daily, Cha...

Since 2010, Rabbi Mordechai and Chana Lightstone have made what would seem to be a counterintuitive annual pilgrimage: from the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., to the city of Austin for the South by Southwest (SXSW) tech, music and film fest...