Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of mikvahs, Jewish ritual baths.
Mikvah
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Fast Forward Mikveh-Peep Rabbi Barry Freundel Secretly Videotaped at Least 150 Women, Prosecutors Say
Rabbi Barry Freundel secretly videotaped at least 150 women in the mikveh at his prominent Washington D.C. synagogue, prosectors reportedly told a meeting of alleged victims. The disgraced Orthodox cleric has been criminally charged with peeping on six naked women in the ritual bath at Kesher Israel. But prosecutors said the number of victims is…
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Opinion We Need a Mikveh Revolution
Recent events have forced us as a community to take a hard look at the practice of having female converts immerse themselves in a mikveh before a rabbinical court of three men. In the wake of news that a Washington rabbi, Barry Freundel, allegedly spied on women as they were engaging in this ritual, others…
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Life 5 Things Jewish Women Will Do in 2015
Lior Zaltzman In 2014 we saw everyone from Beyoncé to Joseph Gordon-Levitt embrace feminism, a video clip titled “10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman” spark a debate about street harassment, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg become a cultural icon. As 2015 begins here are five trends to look out for. Funny Women Will…
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News Did Rabbi Barry Freundel Treat Mikveh Like ‘Car Wash’ To Peep on Women?
Two new lawsuits aim to hold Modern Orthodoxy’s largest rabbinic organization responsible in the Rabbi Barry Freundel mikvah-peeping scandal. Both lawsuits allege that the Rabbinical Council of America and Freundel’s own synagogue were aware of inappropriate conduct by Freundel prior to the discovery that he was using a hidden camera to view women as they…
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Fast Forward Orthodox Rabbinic Group Sued in Barry Freundel Mikveh Peeping Case
A lawsuit arising out of allegations of voyeurism at a Washington D.C. ritual bath added the Rabbinical Council of America as a defendant. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month by a third-year student at Georgetown University’s law school, initially named as defendants Rabbi Barry Freundel’s Washington synagogue, Kesher Israel, the adjacent mikvah and her own…
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Fast Forward Jewish Student Sues Barry Freundel Synagogue Over Mikveh Peeping
A third-year student at Georgetown University’s law school is suing Rabbi Barry Freundel, his Washington synagogue, the adjacent mikvah and her own law school for allowing Freundel’s alleged misdeeds to go unchecked. The unidentified student’s suit was filed Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court by attorney Steven Silverman of Baltimore. She said she was lured to…
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Fast Forward Rabbi Barry Freundel Fired by Kesher Israel
Rabbi Barry Freundel has officially been fired from his post at Kesher Israel over sensational charges he used a hidden camera to peep on women in the Washington D.C. synagogue’s mikveh. Freundel was arrested in mid-October and had been suspended from the Congregation without pay ever since. Due to the decision, Freundel and his family…
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Life Why Is ‘Mikveh Suicide’ a Fiction Motif?
(Haaretz) — Imagine a young Orthodox woman being forced, against her will, to marry an older man who disgusts her. Seeing no way out, she commits suicide – by drowning herself in a mikveh. Now imagine another young Orthodox woman being forced to marry an older man who repulses her. She goes ahead and marries him,…
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