Welcome to the Forward’s Jewish News coverage about feminism and womens issues.
Feminism
The Latest
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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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Opinion No, It’s Not a ‘Feminist Catfight’ Over Hillary Clinton
“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.” Rebecca West in 1912. It’s 2015, and we still can’t agree on what the F-word really means. In a recent…
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Culture Why Is a Formerly Secular Woman Like Her Running a Chabad Center?
At the age of 13, Keren Blum told her parents that she was an agnostic. Because she also became a vegetarian at that time, her parents, Conservative Jews, were troubled by what they perceived as rebelliousness. They tried to make Judaism joyous and meaningful for her — in vain, at least initially. Blum completed her…
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Life Belda Lindenbaum’s Revolutionary Vision
The first time I ever opened a Gemara, I was at Drisha, in the Beit Midrash generously endowed by Belda and Marcel Lindenbaum. At that time, a year after graduating college, I had not yet met Belda and Marcel, nor did yet I have any awareness of the fact that some would consider what I…
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Life Remembering Belda Lindenbaum
In the 48 hours since I heard of the passing of Belda Lindenbaum — pioneer of Orthodox feminism and of advanced Torah study for women — my Facebook feed has filled with tributes to her, and I can’t stop reading and re-reading them. Each poster — many of them alumnae of schools guided by Belda’s…
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Life Shouldn’t Zionism Prioritize the Rights of Women?
It’s hard to be a feminist in Israel today. You walk around thinking that it should be obvious that women are equal human beings, fully capable of living independent, free lives. But that belief is challenged in every corner of your life, every day. Sure, there are some signs in Israel that women are doing…
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Opinion How To Include LGBT Jews in ‘Who Sets the Table?’
Illustration by Anya Ulinich The Forward recently released the first survey in the “Who Sets The Table?” series, a new, year-long multimedia project that will try to discover “to what degree domestic observance of Judaism still relies on the efforts of women,” as well as the general ways in which the patriarchal structure of religious…
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News When observant Jews gathered to challenge Israel orthodoxy, verbal sparring and walkouts ensued
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Opinion Trump has forced an impossible choice on American synagogues amid antisemitic attacks
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Opinion The one crucial domain in which Iran outwitted Israel
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Fast Forward Suspect in Michigan synagogue attack dead after ramming car into temple, police say
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