This is 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
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News Patrilineal Jews Still Find Resistance
Rachel Brook, a 29-year-old vocalist living in Brooklyn, was born to a Jewish Israeli father and a non-Jewish mother. After her parents divorced when she was 3, Brook was raised by her father as a Jew in a Reform synagogue. Last year, she decided to apply to cantorial school at the Academy for Jewish Religion,…
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News Orthodox Jews Find Pick in Santorum
While presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is the pick of the Republican Jewish establishment, Rick Santorum enjoys notable support among Orthodox Jews — a phenomenon that could become more visible with the approach of primaries in states that have large Orthodox populations. Romney, the front-runner in the Republican primary race, has raised millions from prominent Republican…
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Life On Shopping Around Your ‘Ex-Frum’ Story
Hasidim, and even more “garden variety” Orthodox Jews such as myself, are a people apart, and we will always seem strange against the backdrop of 21st century America. With all the press coverage over the last few weeks, I can’t even count how many of my classmates have asked me if I have any hair…
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Israel News AIPAC Not Just for Jews Anymore
It didn’t take much to notice the changing face of the pro-Israel activist community. A walk through the packed ballroom at the recent American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference revealed a crowd more diverse than the stereotypic image of the Jewish lobby. AIPAC is still the prime location for pro-Israel Jewish activism, but an…
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Opinion Constitutional Dilemma on Birth Control
Invoking George Washington’s famous letter to the Jews of Newport, R.I., Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of New York’s Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, one of the foremost Orthodox rabbis of his generation, told a congressional committee on February 16 that requiring health insurance plans to cover contraception threatened “the liberties of conscience” of fellow Americans and “redefined by…
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News Women Seek Role in Deciding Halacha
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…
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Culture Preaching to the Converters
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…
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Opinion You Can’t Pray the Gay Away
‘Reparative therapy” for gays and lesbians, which attempts to “change” sexual orientation and is neither reparative nor therapy, is the last gasp of bad theology. It exists to solve a theological crisis. On the one hand, Jews are told that God loves us and that “it is not good… to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18) On…
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