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 How an Orthodox Rabbi Became A Reform Jewish Educator
In 1979, I was ordained as a rabbi by a prominent yeshiva. My training prepared me to become a modern Orthodox rabbi, presumably in a congregation. I previously served as a Jewish youth educator in the Chicago region of NCSY and as a visiting staff member for other regions around the Midwest. So, when the…
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Community Sorry, Pundits: Non-Orthodox American Jews Are Here to Stay.
Recently I was waiting to chow down on some beef stew at a Jerusalem restaurant in the city’s iconic Mahane Yehuda market, often called “the shuk.” That’s when I saw them. Hordes of Americans in the their early 20s. The best new winter jackets. Young, robust, happy. They were chatting about how “cool” Jerusalem was….
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Opinion Dramatic Orthodox Growth Is Transforming the American Jewish Community
The overall American Jewish population size is stable and growing, but its character is shifting dramatically. The Orthodox population (Haredi, centrist, and modern) is exploding. The non-Orthodox are in sharp decline. We can chart the rapid growth of the Orthodox by looking at their numbers in the Pew Research Center data over three generations, each…
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Opinion The Seismic Shift in the Progressive Jewish Paradigm
Steven M. Cohen’s attempt to quantify the shifting nature of the Jewish community succeeds in its portrayal of a rapidly growing Orthodox community but signally fails to capture an equally seismic shift of paradigm in the progressive, non-Orthodox, younger millennial demographic. For this generation, the oft-cited 2013 Pew Research Center’s study on American Jewry indicates…
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Community Post Wedding Mental Health Challenges Are More Common Than You Think — Here’s What You Can Do To Conquer Them
After months of planning, and years of anticipation, the wedding was beautiful. Family and friends. Dancing. A real simcha. She and her family never dreamed a mental health challenge would appear after the wedding. She would be a bride! So why was she feeling depressed afterward? For some newlyweds, it may just be “post-wedding blues.”…
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Fast Forward Lakewood Orthodox Jews Pitch In After 2-year-old Latino Boy’s Tragic Death
— The Jewish community of Lakewood, New Jersey, is providing assistance to the family of a 2-year-old Latino boy who was killed in a tragic accident. Jayden Marquez was killed Thursday when his aunt accidentally backed into him with her car in the family’s driveway. An Orthodox Jewish committeeman, Meir Lichtenstein, went to the hospital…
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Fast Forward Jews Are World’s Most Educated but Orthodox Drag Figure Down: Study
— Jews are the world’s most-educated religious group, with an average of more than 13 years of formal schooling, according to a new study. The Pew Research Center study published Tuesday found that Jews worldwide have four years more of schooling on average than the next-most educated group, Christians, who average about nine years of schooling….
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Israel News New Jersey Family to Pay Rabbis Shunned by Israeli Rabbinate
(Ha’aretz) — If the state of Israel won’t pay the salaries of rabbis of certain denominations, then we will. That, in a nutshell, is how one family from Livingston, New Jersey, hopes to foment a religious revolution in Israel. By providing a living wage to rabbis who are not eligible for state funding – and…
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