JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Women are permitted to dance with a Torah scroll on the Simchat Torah holiday, a national-religious rabbinical organization has ruled. The Beit Hillel organization posted the religious ruling on its website. The ruling also encourages synagogues to be more inclusive of the elderly, the youth and people with disabilities during the holiday celebration, which includes…
The Turkish city of Izmir restored a 17th-century synagogue at risk of collapse. Reconstruction of the Beit Hillel Synagogue began about a year ago. At the time, only the facade was intact; the remainder largely had been destroyed by a pair of fires. Once the reconstruction is completed, the structure will be turned into a…
“Do you kids have a permit to hang up all of these posters around the city?” the policeman asked. “Permit?” my friend and I questioned in response. “We are trying to raise public awareness about baseless hatred, and destructive conflict, and you’re asking us for a permit?” Yet, after several hours in the sweltering heat…
Even as Orthodox women take on clergy-like roles, the task of interpreting Jewish law has long been the exclusive domain of men. But a new group called Beit Hillel aims to bring down that barrier. An alliance of 120 Orthodox rabbis and 30 female religious scholars, Beit Hillel was formed to counter the increasingly hard…
The Tea Party now dominates the political conversation on the most important domestic matter we entrust to our leaders: how to spend our money. The notion that the national budget should be cut with little regard for the effects on people’s lives while at the same time insisting that the rich cannot be taxed one…
