Elana Sztokman
By Elana Sztokman
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Life Orthodox Women Overcome Barriers at Kolech Conference
This year’s conference of Kolech, Israel’s Orthodox feminist forum, grappled with cutting-edge issues around homosexuality, the place of transgender women in Orthodoxy and the shared lifestyles of Muslim and Jewish religious women. At the conference, which took place in Jerusalem earlier this month, the panel on homosexuality included an Israeli lesbian who was raised Orthodox,…
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Life Naomi Wolf: Trapped by Her Own ‘Beauty Myth’
Naomi Wolf is really getting on my nerves. It feels terrible to say that because she has made some key contributions to feminist consciousness over the years. Her first major book, “The Beauty Myth,” outlining the litany of damaging effects of the beauty industry on women and girls’ self-image is a classic that has indelibly…
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News An Orthodox Jew Leads Toledo to a Women’s National Basketball Title
Naama Shafir, a junior guard, poured in a career-high 40 points to lead the University of Toledo to victory in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament championship. She was crowned the basketball tournament’s MVP. And then she walked about two miles home. Shafir, an Orthodox Jew from Israel, did not want to break the Sabbath. The…
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Culture Taking on the Rabbinate — on YouTube
Vered Shavit did everything she could to avoid the Israeli rabbinate. When she got married in 2005, she flew all the way to Cyprus for a civil ceremony, then had a Reform ceremony in Israel and never registered in Israel as married. But it didn’t matter. Despite everything, when she and the man decided this…
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Food Kosher in Paradise – Where to Eat on Maui
“Mana Food” sounds Jewish, perhaps a reference to the manna from heaven that the Israelites ate in the desert. But on the island of Maui it’s a lovely health food supermarket in the town of Paia. The “Mana” here refers to a Hawaiian notion of spiritual power, one of many Hawaiian words and concepts that…
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Life The Subtext of the Argument That Obama Is America’s ‘First Female President’
Sometimes an idea is so absurd that I do not want to give it credence by replying. On the other hand if that absurd idea gains force, then I may find myself reluctantly responding to the ridiculous. Like right now. Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker, one of the few powerful women pundits in a field…
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Life On Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and What Isn’t ‘Culturally Relative’
People are always trying to trip up feminists. Like the time I was helping set up a room at a conference, right after I gave a talk about gender in Orthodoxy, and needed help moving a conference table. I asked the nearest person, who happened to be a man who was in my talk. He…
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Life The State of Sexual Harassment in Israel
A woman in Israel recently won the equivalent of about $8,000 in a lawsuit against her employer on the grounds that his habit of routinely calling her into his office to watch porn on his computer constitutes sexual harassment. Although he had not requested any sexual “favors” from her, the District Tel Aviv Labor Court…
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