Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Orthodox Judaism, which aims for a stricter observance of halachic law than Conservative or Reform Judaism. It includes Modern Orthodox Judaism, as well as Haredi (sometimes called ultra-Orthodox) Judaism,…
Orthodox Judaism
The Latest
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News Observant Women Make Tzitzit — and Stir Controversy
Since biblical times, male authorities have been debating the issue of whether women should sport tzitzit. Now, thanks to a freshman from Princeton University, a group of young women are — quite literally — taking this fiddly law into their own hands. Maya Rosen, 19, has been wearing tzitzit for three years, making her own…
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Culture Hadar Offers Orthodox Women a Glossy Magazine of Their Own
(Haaretz) — Think Vogue, circa 1929 – a drawn silhouette of a fashionably, but conservatively, dressed woman, holding a weekend bag. A women’s fashion magazine without a celebrity on the cover is a real rarity today, what with Kanye and Kim peering from newsstands this month – but Hadar Magazine, a new publication for Orthodox…
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Fast Forward Uri L’Tzedek Backs Oversight for Orthodox School District
The Orthodox social justice group Uri L’Tzedek will participate in a rally to request greater state oversight of a New York school district with a majority of board members who are haredi Orthodox Jews. The rally on Tuesday is protesting the situation in the East Ramapo district, whose board has been accused of selling school…
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The Schmooze Buzzfeed, Torah-Style
Have you ever scrolled through Buzzfeed thinking, ‘If only this could be a little more Jewish?” Someone in the wide netherworld of the Internet has heard your prayers and answered them. The result is BuzzTorah, a spoof of the news site that launched a thousand listicles created by Yeshiva University students. The website self-describes as…
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News Kosher Soup Kitchen Struggles With Rising Ranks of Hungry as Passover Nears
On a recent chilly afternoon in Queens, two women shivered in a line of about 50 people that trailed out the door of Masbia, a kosher food pantry and soup kitchen. The first woman, from Manhattan, wore baggy pants. The other, from Queens, was clad in a long, draping skirt. Their outfits signaled differences in…
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Israel News Israeli Jews Who Aren’t Jewish in Eyes of Rabbis Face Kafkaesque Conversion Plight
They live as part of Jewish society in the Jewish state, but the state itself does not consider them Jewish. For Israel, some 330,000 immigrants, mostly from the former Soviet Union, represent a big assimilation problem and a big political problem, made worse by the fact that the only solution for this largely non-religious group…
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Fast Forward British Orthodox School Kills Questions on Evolution
In the wake of an Orthodox Jewish day school redacting questions about evolution from a national science exam, England’s exams office said the practice is not permissible. The U.K. Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation, or Ofqual, sent a message to all public exam boards saying that blocking out questions on national exams is “malpractice”…
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Israel News Do Orthodox Rabbi Groups Hold Too Much Sway Over Conversion — in Israel and U.S.?
(JTA) — Even if you converted to Judaism under Orthodox auspices, your conversion may be called into question by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and the Rabbinical Council of America, the main centrist Orthodox rabbinical group in the United States. If you live in Israel, this means your ability to marry a Jew is in jeopardy….
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