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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Life Seriously, What Orthodox Women Wear to the Beach Is No Different From a Burkini
Moshe Sebbag, the rabbi of the Grand Synagogue of Paris, announced this week that he supports the French ban on burkinis, the modest swimwear some Muslim women wear to cover up on the beach. Wearing a burkini, he said, is not “innocent” and it sends a message. But, we ask Sebbag, what difference exactly is…
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Fast Forward Satmar Decree Bars Women From ‘Dangerous’ College Education
— Hasidic rabbis from the Satmar sect reportedly have issued a decree barring women from pursuing higher education. The Yiddish-language decree says college education for girls is “dangerous” and “against the Torah,” and that “no girls attending our school are allowed to study and get a degree,” The Independent online newspaper based in Britain reported…
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News Esther Jungreis, Orthodox Jewish Outreach Pioneer, Dies at 80
— Esther Jungreis, a pioneer in the Jewish outreach movement and founder of the organization Hineni, died Tuesday. She was 80, according to the Vos Iz Neias blog. An announcement published in October on the site Only Simchas indicated Jungreis was “in serious condition” and fighting an infection, but did not specify her ailment. Jungreis was born in Szeged,…
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Fast Forward 40 Orthodox Clergy Condemn Donald Trump’s ‘Hateful Rhetoric’
(JTA) — Forty American Orthodox clergy co-signed a letter condemning Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for what they called his “hateful rhetoric and intolerant policy proposals.” The letter — whose signatories included Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, the founding president of Clal-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York City — was Friday on the website Cleveland.com. Noting that…
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Fast Forward Judge Nixes Jewish Community Service for Orthodox Men in Racial Beating Case
– Two Orthodox Jews who beat up a gay black man in New York were sentenced to 150 hours of community service — and a judge rejected their proposal to work for a Jewish organization. Pinchas Braver and Abraham Winkler, who admitted to participating in the December 2013 beating, were sentenced Tuesday in New York…
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Life The Secret to Making My Mixed Marriage Work
“I know my husband uses the microwave on Shabbat,” a friend told me, after I shared my story of being in a mixed secular-religious marriage, “but he makes sure to do it while I’m out of the house at shul.” While this bifurcated approach may work in the short term, where the less observant partner…
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Life Can These Newly Ordained Rabbis Upend the Status Quo in Israel?
Bitya Rozen-Goldberg had no idea she wanted to be a rabbi when she immigrated to Israel from France 11 years ago. In the years since settling in Jerusalem, the 33-year-old tour guide studied Talmud in numerous female settings. But as “female rabbi” has long been an oxymoron in the Orthodox world, she never thought she…
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News Rabbi Haskel Lookstein’s Long Hot Summer in the Spotlight
For Rabbi Haskel Lookstein it’s been a challenging summer. A widely admired New York rabbi, Lookstein has faced down this over-heated season at the tail end of a long career as a beloved and respected spiritual leader among Manhattan’s elite. He has, among other things, long presided over Manhattan’s East Side synagogue Kehilath Jeshurun and…
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