A Hasidic girls school in Brooklyn is demanding mothers of students appear more “modest” next school year. Some of the things the administration is forbidding? Leggings, denim and “loud” nail polish. In a letter to parents from Crown Heights Girls’ School Bnos Menachem, director Motty Gurary explained the rationale for the changes: to “create a…
NEW YORK (JTA) — Soon after Nechama Levy moved to Brooklyn five years ago, she opened a bicycle repair shop. The spacious, high-ceilinged store was just down the street from a new pub with exposed brick walls. Like many who have moved recently to the rapidly gentrifying borough, Levy, 33, was drawn to the area’s relatively…
A new debate is playing out in New York City’s Orthodox community over the halachic status of an online app designed for women who wish to better observe the religious prohibition on intimacy during menstruation. The application, Tahor, allows for women to anonymously send photos of their bedikah cloths, used to check the vagina for…
This article has been updated with new information since its original publication. There’s a kosher pizza war being waged in the heart of Hasidic Brooklyn — and a Jewish religious court has laid down a Solomonic decision about how the pie is going to be sliced. Basil Pizza & Wine Bar is an established gourmet…
It happened slowly. First I was cutting my black hair into short punk-esque styles and rocking out at secular concerts. Then I was wearing more revealing clothing when costumes were the theme of the day. Every so often I would post short clips of me belting songs at karaoke or drinking with friends. It felt…
(JTA) — A driver threatened to shoot a crossing guard and a child outside a Jewish day school in Crown Heights, New York. The school crossing guard, 55, had asked the driver to move his car, which was blocking the sidewalk outside the Beth Rivkah Elementary School. The driver then asked the guard: “Why are…
Police arrested two men in connection with the vandalism of an eruv built in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, the NYPD said. Yosef Kratz, 36, and Yosef Doran, 21, were both arrested on charges that they attempted to vandalize the eruv, a ritual boundary that marks off areas where Orthodox Jews may move more…
I was 7 years old when I first heard of Crown Heights. At the time, growing up in Los Angeles, my entire world felt Jewish. There were Hollywood Jews who worked in the industry like my parents, Russian Jews down the block from our West Hollywood home and Hasidic Jews on Fairfax. Sure, there were…
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