Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Hasidic Judaism, a sub-group of Haredi Judaism that adheres to the historical traditions of Eastern European Jews, including communicating in Yiddish.
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News Why A Sleepy New Jersey Suburb Targeted Hasidic Jews With ‘Anti-Semitic’ Laws
When a Holocaust survivor took the microphone last summer at a city council meeting in Mahwah, New Jersey, tensions were already running high. Hundreds of people filled the hall as Sami Steigmann, 78, sat before the township’s mayor and council. The meeting happened amid rising concerns by residents that ultra-Orthodox Jews were “infiltrating” their town…
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News What Is An Eruv?
It’s a fence, but it doesn’t exist six days out of the week. It’s a symbolic extension of the home, but not an extension of private property. It’s an ingenious legal loophole, but it’s been Jewish law for 1,500 years. It’s not a riddle, it’s an eruv: a boundary used by Orthodox Jews to expand…
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Fast Forward For Hasidic Jews, A Kosher, Internet-Free GPS Tool
A new GPS device for navigation has been designed specifically for Hasidic Jews who might otherwise be averse to using smartphones. Some have taken to calling the kosher, rabbi-approved device “the Ark” — because, apparently, it looks something like the ark of a Torah. A blog post on Tablet featured the new device, which can’t…
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Fast Forward Hasidic Neighborhood In Brooklyn Has Lead Levels Three Times Worse Than Flint
A Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn — one that has New York City’s highest concentration of children — has lead poisoning levels three times worse than Flint, Michigan. Williamsburg has seen thousands of cases of lead poisoning since 2005, Reuters reported “When I saw the numbers I freaked out,” said Rabbi David Niederman, leader of the…
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Opinion Inside The Satmar Plan To Win Independence For Kiryas Joel
Once again, Kiryas Joel is in the news. The latest is that the Town of Monroe had voted overwhelmingly to agree to the secession of the Satmar enclave, which will form a new all-Hasidic town of Palm Tree. On the face of it, this seems like a bold new phase in the political history of…
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Fast Forward Broker Says Morgan Stanley Fired Him For Having Hasidic Clients
A Staten Island man is claiming that Morgan Stanley, his former employer, fired him for pursuing Hasidic clients, SILive.com reported. Michael Pellegrino, a stockbroker, says that his bosses referred to Hasidic Jews as “unicorns” and disparaged him for having an association with the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. According to a wrongful termination suit filed by Pellegrino,…
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Fast Forward Is This Hasidic Halloween Costume Anti-Semitic?
A trick-or-treating couple in Rockland County, New York dressed as a Hasidic family toting a wagon full of babies and the sign “we buy houses cash.” “This is not funny, this is blatant anti-semitism,” one account called Rockland is One posted on Facebook. “It’s no different than if these people had dressed in blackface. It’s…
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Life What Makes The Hasidic Community Choose Tribe Over Offspring?
About 10 years ago, right around the time the tectonic plates beneath my structured world began to shift, eventually destroying my entire existence as I knew it, there was a campaign in my hometown of Kiryas Joel and beyond to “save the neshama of a young girl.” The young girl, a toddler at the time,…
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Fast Forward Rep. Max Miller says driver called him a ‘dirty Jew’ and threatened to kill his family. A local doctor turned himself in.
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News An Alabama millionaire offered Jews $50,000 to move to his town. 16 years later, what’s left?
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Culture Why is Israel’s attack on Iran called ‘Rising Lion’ — and what does the Bible have to do with it?
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News As Israel attacks, what is life like for Jews in Iran?
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Culture How a Jewish reporter like me got addicted to Christian media
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Opinion Israeli leaders are using Holocaust comparisons to justify attacks on Iran. Is that kosher?
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Fast Forward Over half of Jewish students at Columbia experienced discrimination and exclusion after Oct. 7, survey shows
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Fast Forward Journalist board of Shtetl, news site covering haredi Orthodoxy, resigns after founder renounces mission
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