Welcome to the Forward’s Jewish News coverage about feminism and womens issues.
Feminism
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Film & TV Chantal Akerman, Pioneering Feminist Filmmaker, Dies at 65
Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman, a daughter of Holocaust survivors known for her experimental films that closely examined women’s lives, has died in Paris. She was 65. French media reported that Akerman committed suicide. The date and cause are not yet known, according to the New York Times. Her parents were Polish Holocaust survivors, and her…
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Life The Costs of Women’s Synagogue Participation
When my family walked into our Orthodox synagogue on Monday, the first day of Sukkot, we got there in time to see women holding their own lulav and etrog and performing the processional of “hakafot” on the women’s side of the mechitza as the men made the circuit on their side. This tandem march is…
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Life Missing from the Feminist Conversation
It should have been an exciting night. Anita Hill and Letty Cottin Pogrebin were scheduled to be in conversation about “Faith, Feminism, Race and the Ties that Bind” under the auspices of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and Interfaithfamily.com. But the two women sat in armchairs on the stage of the Levin Theater in Brandeis University’s student…
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Life Are Religious Women Treated As Second-Class Feminists?
“There is simply no room for women in the beit midrash” “Most guys wouldn’t date you, because you are Student Council President” “I know that you have your career, but I’m the guy, and you know, the parnassah” “You need to go to the back door. Only men can enter through the front.” While there…
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Life Why I’m OK Staying Out of The ‘Orthodox Boys’ Club’
This week I read Rachel Rosenthal’s open letter to Rabbi Willig expressing her frustration and anger about his views on women learning Talmud. I have sympathy for Ms. Rosenthal’s frustration and agree with her that it is in everyone’s best interest to have smart, educated observant Jewish women. But Rabbi Willig’s main point was that…
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Life How Israel’s ‘Sleeve-Gate’ Completely Missed the Point
Have you been witness to men in the workplace behaving unprofessionally and immaturely? Well, Israeli women members of Knessets (MKs) are not having any of it. Just last month, I relished this video of Yesh Atid MK Yael Gerban scolding Likud’s Oren Hazan for interrupting her (Oren, shev be’sheket – sit quietly, she yells like…
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Life What’s Wrong With Women Studying Talmud, Rabbi Willig?
Dear Rabbi Willig, We don’t know each other, and in many ways, I am outside of your target constituency. You, after all, are a , an institution I have never attended. In fact, I would assume that there is little we agree on, other than the binding nature of halakha or Jewish law. However, last…
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Life How Orthodox Day School Made Me a Feminist
An Orthodox day school is not a place many would expect to give young women the skills to become outspoken feminists, but this has been the case in my life. In many ways, my feminism was a reaction to the Orthodox environment around me: my second-grade self, when handed a coloring book on;y featuring pictures…
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