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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Community Why On Earth Are Orthodox Jews Opposing The Child Victims Act?
While learning in the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, my study partner and I attended a lecture from the great Jewish thinker, Rabbi Moshe Shapiro. Later that week, we saw him at the Western Wall praying with the sunrise. My friend asked him a question on the lecture he had given earlier in the week. Rabbi…
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News This Jewish Couple Overcame Infertility. Do Their Twins Have To Convert?
The Jewish parents of infant twin boys drove last summer from their home in the Washington, D.C., area to a summer camp in Pennsylvania to perform a conversion for their babies. It was a slightly embellished version of the traditional conversion ceremony: Since both boys were already circumcised, they simply recited a prayer, the Sh’ma,…
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Fast Forward Schumer: Orthodox Jews Should Call Out Trump For Failing To Condemn Neo-Nazis
WASHINGTON (JTA) — An otherwise congenial meeting between Jewish organizational officials and Democratic senators apparently turned testy when Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, said Orthodox Jews should do more to call out President Donald Trump for failing to confront hate in the United States. Schumer, D-N.Y. was singling out what he depicted as a…
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Community Orthodox Trump Supporters Are Not White Supremacists
Since November 2016, members of the media have been finding Nazis everywhere — even in seemingly impossible places. The latest example in the Forward was a piece by Elad Nehorai proclaiming that Orthodox Jews are embracing White Nationalist ideology. Nehorai is a writer I have long respected and admired, both for his mastery of the…
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Community What Every Prospective Convert to Judaism Deserves To Know
When you go to a doctor, you initially have to complete and sign a plethora of forms. There are the checkboxes for all imaginable ailments and diseases, and you begin to realize “Yikes! There are so many things in me that can go wrong, it’s a miracle that I even can read this thing and…
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Life There’s No Such Thing As ‘Half-Jewish.’ It’s Simply ‘Jewish.’
As a child growing up in Philadelphia, when adults would ask me about my religion, I would answer, with a smile, “I’m nothing!” This resulted in a polite smile mixed with pity and bafflement. My Ukrainian Greek Catholic mother married a Jewish man, as did two of her four sisters. My mom may have married…
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Fast Forward Women Are ‘Weak-Minded’ And ‘Just Babble,’ Israeli Rabbi Tells Yeshiva Students
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A rabbi who teaches at a pre-military yeshiva in the West Bank told students that women are “weak minded” and “just babble.” Rabbi Yosef Kelner also said women have a “limited capacity” for spirituality in the footage broadcast Tuesday by Hadashot news taken at a class on marriage and family. The class…
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Opinion Anti-Orthodox Is The New Anti-Semitism
I’ve recently come to a shocking realization about American society. Over the past few years, it has become increasingly clear that it’s okay to hate Jews. I’m not talking about the abhorrent anti-Semitism of the “alt-right,” where wannabe politicians stoke the flames of bigotry just so that they can get the fleeting feeling of relevance….
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