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Life
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Who Is Gingrich-Backer Miriam Adelson?
Miriam Adelson, the Israeli-born wife of multibillionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, will donate $5 million to a “super PAC” backing Newt Gingrich for the Republican presidential nomination, The New York Times reported Monday. Her gift to Winning Our Future — the group behind the 28-minute video takedown of Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital —…
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Why I Cover Up
There’s been a lot of talk lately about tsnius, or modesty, lately — with all of the news coming out of Israel. I recently came across this cartoon, showing a woman in a bikini and a woman in a burqa, each judging harshly how the other is dressed. The cartoon got me thinking how both…
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‘Modern’ Orthodox Org. Behind Blurred Fogel Pic
As the ultra-Orthodox leadership in Israel lurches ever rightward, we’ve learned that they don’t simply view scantily clad women or their images as unhealthily erotic. All images of women are out of bounds. Even the most modestly dressed woman, innocent little girl or feeble old lady is potential a potential source of sexual temptation for…
The Latest
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Prime Ribs: New ‘Yentl’ Tunes; Original ‘Occupier’
Keira Knightly talks about playing psychoanalysis pioneer, Jung patient and Holocaust victim Sabina Speilrein in the new film “A Dangerous Method.” Skeptical of JDate’s algorithm for picking Mr. or Mrs. right? Try “J sites,” the online Jewish dating service that has good old-fashioned matchmakers do the pairing. There is a new biography of original “occupier”…
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After Divorce, Mom Should Not Be ‘Default Parent’
I heard on the radio news that “women’s groups are furious” at Thursday’s announcement by Israel’s Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman that from now on women will not be automatically granted custody of children under the age of six in divorce settlements. Women’s groups are apparently planning on fighting to retain the current law that recognizes…
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Raising a Daughter, Without Adelson’s Help
Dear Ariel Beery and Erin Kopelow: Congratulations on the impending birth of your baby girl. When I saw your essay on Tablet questioning whether it was wise to raise a daughter in Israel at a time when “war is waged against girls and women” I understood the feeling. I had my first child when I,…
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Roe v. Wade at 39
Last year smashed records on reproductive rights — and not good ones. As the year that birthed the GOP “war on women” came to a close, the Guttmacher Institute tallied things up and found that of all the reproductive health and rights-related provisions enacted this year: “Fully 68% of these new provisions—92 in 24 states—restrict…
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In Brooklyn, Dressing for the Back of the Bus
It used to be that while walking in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on a fine spring day or attending wedding in nearby Boro Park, you would see how stylish Haredi women could be. Modestly attired to be sure, with heads cloaked in hats over wigs and clothing safely reaching to above the collarbone, to the wrist and…
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Single Ladies Want Mikveh Access
The latest fight in Israel is not over where women sit on the bus or walk on the street, but about where they can immerse. Some Israeli women are petitioning the country’s Supreme Court, asking it to reverse official directives that restrict ritual bath usage to married women, and bar women who are single, divorced…
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So What If Yoga Is Just Another Exercise?
Put down those mats everyone. Now yoga is bad. Well, not bad, but maybe not the magic cure it has long been touted as either — at least according to two new articles. A recent piece in the New York Times magazine outlines the health risks associated with yoga. While completely hyperbolic — one guy’s…
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How Women’s Exclusion Threatens Coalition Gov’t
Update, January 18, 11:27 a.m.: The High Court today ruled that the committee that appoints religious judges must have women on it, and that women’s representation on this and other committees must be sealed with legislation. Until the issue of women’s exclusion is fixed, the committee is not allowed to appoint dayanim, or religious judges….
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