Even as Orthodox women take on clergy-like roles, the task of interpreting Jewish law has long been the exclusive domain of men. But a new group called Beit Hillel aims to bring down that barrier. An alliance of 120 Orthodox rabbis and 30 female religious scholars, Beit Hillel was formed to counter the increasingly hard…
Pledges of Jewish Allegiance: Conversion, Law, and Policy-making in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Orthodox Responsa By David Ellenson and Daniel Gordis Stanford University Press, 216 pages, $30 In Herman Wouk’s autobiographical novel, “Inside, Outside,” Wouk’s alter ego falls in love with a gentile woman and is somewhat surprised to find that his grandfather, an Old World…
In late January, the Israel Democracy Institute’s Guttman Center for Surveys, along with the Avi Chai Foundation, released the results of a comprehensive survey on the religious beliefs of Israeli Jews. Among other interesting findings, it showed that some 80% of the Jewish population in Israel believes in God — which, perhaps, is good news….
When ninth-grader Shulamit Izen fought to establish a group uniting gay and straight students at her Boston-area Jewish high school in 2001, the effort seemed remarkable enough to inspire a film. “Hineini,” the 2005 documentary chronicling the young lesbian’s struggle, became a touchstone for a nascent movement encouraging openness and support for teenagers grappling with…
The public commuter bus between Brooklyn and the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of Kiryas Joel has cushioned seats, small televisions and another, more unusual feature: a heavy blue curtain that hangs from the ceiling and separates male and female passengers. On a bus ridden by reporters from the New York World and the Forward, men and…
Abraham and Isaac — or, as some would have it, Ibrahim and Ishmael — took center stage when a panel including Muslim imams and some of America’s most prominent Modern Orthodox rabbis discussed their respective legal systems and foundational texts, and their implications for Jewish-Muslim relations today. The October 30 seminar “Ancient Texting” brought together…
Had you been checking out the celebrity gossip website TMZ.com during Rosh Hashanah services — what else are iPhones for? — you might have been amused to learn that the rapper Tyrese was banned from the biggest hip-hop radio station in Delaware for addressing his audience as “homies.” Almost as entertaining was the news this…
Perhaps Michele Bachmann should ask Alex Rodriguez for some help with her Jewish jargon. Say what you will about the scandal-tainted Yankees third baseman — when he borrows a word, he uses it properly… sort of. Asked yesterday about his cousin’s visit to his hotel in San Francisco — a visit that could cause problems…
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