Welcome to the Forward’s Jewish News coverage about feminism and womens issues.
Feminism
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Life Jewish Feminists Take on the RCA
In a bold and passionate move, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) has sent two letters to the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), a leading Orthodox rabbinic organization, in an attempt to advance women’s leadership roles in synagogues and communities. One of the letters reads: As the major rabbinic arm in the Orthodox world, the…
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Life On ‘CSI,’ Evidence of Feminism’s Unfinished Work
The scene is riveting: The body of a murdered woman has been discovered in the middle of the city. Throngs of professional men and women — detectives, crime scene investigators, and the coroner — scurry around collecting evidence, analyzing the circumstances of the crime, and comparing theories. Then, someone discovers the victim’s handbag. “Oh, this…
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Life Digest: Yanklowitz on Feminism, and the Fruit of Egalitarian Marriages
The Sisterhood Digest: • It is a rare thing for a man to publicly identify as feminist and to advocate on behalf of equitable pay, women’s lay and professional leadership, and increased paid maternity leave at Jewish organizations, but in The New York Jewish Week, Shmuly Yanklowitz does just that. In his essay “Jewish Feminism…
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Life The Ten Plagues — According to Jewish Women
This post is adapted from a speech, “The Ten Plagues According to Jewish Women,” that Pogrebin gave at the Downtown Seder, held March 25 at the City Winery in Manhattan. Plague #1: Dam. BLOOD — Women have this plague every 28 days or so, and except when we’re ready to procreate, most of us welcome…
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Life Towards a More Democratic Feminism
In a just-posted Newsweek article, Jessica Bennett discusses her discovery of feminism at age 28. She writes that it wasn’t until she entered the workforce that she realized that things weren’t nearly as equal as she thought they would be: So for all the talk about feminism as passé, mine wasn’t a generation that rejected…
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Life Why Sara Hurwitz’s JOFA Speech Was ‘Retrograde’
There was an exciting energy at the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance conference. Speakers in both the plenary and individual sessions, such as emerging star Lisa Schlaff, made far-reaching statements and bold suggestions about issues ranging from marriage and sexuality to halachic ingenuity. Participants responded in kind with creativity and courage, revealing what seems to be…
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Life Rabbi Sperber at JOFA: Confront Halacha’s Male Bias
Early Sunday morning, I shlepped my tired self through the rain — taking the subway up to Columbia University — to cover the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance conference. At the end of a long day, I came away energized. At the First International Conference on Feminism & Orthodoxy back in 1997, there was something electric…
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Life Podcast: How Orthodox Day Schools Can Embrace Feminism
It’s a story of a Sisterhood post done good. Last month, Elana Sztokman, a regular contributor to this blog, proposed a model for infusing Orthodox day schools with the kind of feminist values that have informed partnership synagogues and have advanced women’s leadership roles within Orthodoxy. The buzz that her blog post generated secured her…
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Fast Forward Expelled Oberlin Chabad rabbi says he ‘made a mistake’ with explicit social media chats
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