Kelsey Osgood
By Kelsey Osgood
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Life Is the mikveh safe from COVID-19? Some women opt for the ocean.
It’s been years since I read ‘The Rebbe’s Army’, journalist Sue Fishkin’s 2003 book on Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidim, but one anecdote has stuck with me ever since: when Chabad’s emissary to Alaska took a congregant to a local lake for her monthly immersion, the two women were surprised by a family of moose, who had chosen…
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Life What We Talk About When We Talk About Death
One sunny Thursday evening in June, eight people, ranging from thirty-somethings to senior citizens, sat around a table at the Manhattan Jewish Community Center nibbling on cookies. In front of them stood Sally Kaplan, one of three facilitators present from the organization What Matters, a New York City-based not-for-profit that facilitates group and individual conversations…
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The Schmooze Whatever You Do, Do Not See ‘Mother!’ Around Rosh Hashanah
Like a good cinephile––one of very few, it would seem––I was anxious to see ‘mother!’, the newest offering from lugubrious auteur Darren Aronofsky. So anxious, in fact, that I ensured there would be one night my husband would come home early from work to sit with our baby son, so I could attend a late…
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Life Playing Hasidic Woman in ‘Felix and Meira’ — Again
In the 2012 Israeli film “Fill the Void,” winsome actress Hadas Yaron played Shira Mendelman, a young Hasidic woman who (spoiler alert) marries her dead sister’s husband. Her portrayal of a religious girl in turmoil made such an impression on the international film community –– she took home the Volpi Award for Best Actress at…
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Opinion The ‘Stranger’ at Your Passover Seder? That’s Me.
Illustration by Lior Zaltzman A week before my first Passover Seder, a friend took me to her local Chabad, where the rabbi outlined the ritual for us, from washing our hands to reading the Haggadah to eating the little sandwich. “You’ll do fine,” the rabbi said to me as I was leaving, which confused me…
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News Can Ex-Orthodox Be Sold on Modern Orthodoxy?
In March 2013, Jewish educator and activist Allison Josephs, now 34, went to lecture at Rockland Community College about the journey to observance she took when she was a teenager. With her Jew in the City blog and her YouTube presence, Josephs, who was raised Conservative, has become a self-appointed spokeswoman for Modern Orthodox Judaism,…
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Life The Difference Between Fasting and Anorexia
From the moment I woke up on the morning of my first Yom Kippur in September of 2010, a heavy ache sat right at my forehead, some combination of early hunger pangs, a minor hangover, and caffeine withdrawal. When I later sat next to my boyfriend and his family at their New Brunswick, New Jersey…
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