Welcome to the Forward’s Jewish News coverage about feminism and womens issues.
Feminism
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Life Should Feminists Go on Diets?
In the past 20-some years, women have “taken back” many things from the patriarchy. These include lipstick, the words “lady” and “slut,” and knitting. But there is one last thing feminists have yet to re-appropriate, and that, according to a new essay in Elle magazine, is dieting. In this month’s magazine Marisa Meltzer writes about…
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Opinion Forward on Film
What do Hasidic hats, the Borscht Belt, the king of competitive dreidel-ing and a tiny row house shul have in common? They all played starring roles in the Forward best videos of 2013 — along with a poignant portrait of the Jewish mother who lost her son in the Newtown school massacre. This year saw…
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Life The Rise of Ultra-Orthodox Beauty Salons
According to the BBC, a quiet revolution is taking place among ultra-Orthodox women in Jerusalem. They have discovered the power of mascara. There are, of course, numerous strict restrictions on these women when it comes to their appearance. They must wear modest clothes — no elbows, no collar bones — cover their heads, and many…
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Life Our Bodies, Our Selfies
Move over Mommy Wars, breastfeeding wars and other categories of intra-feminist warfare. The selfie wars have arrived. Soon after “selfie” — a picture one takes of oneself — was proclaimed word of the year, the debate over the value of selfies began. Erin Gloria Ryan caused a furor when she wrote at Jezebel that selfies…
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Life Hasidic Sex Abuse of Boys Is a Feminist Issue
There are so many stories in the news emerging from the Orthodox community about boys in the religious community — literally from here to Australia — that it’s hard to keep track. Ben Hirsch, director of Survivors for Justice, a Brooklyn organization that advocates for Orthodox sex abuse victims, has recently been quoted as saying…
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Life A Vision for a New Western Wall
On November 4, I celebrated the 25th anniversary of Women of the Wall with over 600 women at the Kotel — a joyous event that went off with little of the usual chair-throwing, whistle-blowing and megaphone-enhanced cursing that the group normally endures during its monthly prayer protests. Two days later, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman…
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Forward 50 2013 Letty Cottin Pogrebin
A co-founder of Ms. Magazine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin has a 40-plus year reputation as an advocate for women. This year, she took a page from the feminist movement’s playbook to crusade on behalf of another marginalized group: the sick. Pogrebin’s 10th book, “How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick,” is, in her…
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Life Split in Women of the Wall Widens
A subset of Women of the Wall leaders and supporters, who disagree with a plan to compromise on where the group can pray at the Kotel, has doubled in size from 10 to 21. Women of the Wall is a feminist group pushing to be able to sing, pray aloud and wear ritual garments typically…
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