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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Culture These Frum Filmmakers Are Revolutionizing Orthodox Cinema
The Haredi world is generally viewed as an insular patriarchal community that shuns movies. Virtually nobody owns a TV. Still, a fledgling, shadow film industry has been growing quietly for a decade within the confines of this improbable universe. These flicks — dozens of them — are produced, scripted, directed and performed by women. Female…
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Life I’m In a Mixed Marriage — and It’s Not What You Think
I have a confession to make: I’m in a mixed marriage. But not the kind you usually think of when you hear the term, which conjures up images of countless Tevyes sitting shiva. These days – and in Israel, in particular – “mixed marriage” refers not so much to two people of different religions, but…
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News WATCH: Ultra-Orthodox Rip Up Prayer Book To Protest Western Wall Bat Mitzvah
A video by Israeli feminist organization Women of the Wall reveals an Orthodox man ripping a prayer book to shreds in protest of women reading at the Western Wall and an American girl’s bat mitzvah. Established in 1988, WOW gathers once a month at Rosh Hodesh to read from the Torah in protest of Orthodox…
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News Leaving the Straight and Narrow ‘Derech’
‘Binyamin” is a formerly ultra-Orthodox Jew from Lakewood, New Jersey. He was raised in a household with over a dozen siblings, and stopped receiving secular education after sixth grade. Binyamin’s parents, he said, were emotionally abusive to him and his siblings. There wasn’t a time when things were better, he remembers. It was always that…
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News Controversial Special Education School in Orthodox Enclave of Lakewood Raided in Probe
New Jersey law enforcement officers removed computers and boxes of records from a special education school with close ties to Lakewood, N.J.’s large ultra-Orthodox community, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press. The June 29 raid was of the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence was carried out by the New Jersey Department…
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News Ex-Hasidic Woman’s ‘Suicide Book’ Rattles Ultra-Orthodox World
“In this city I gave birth to my daughters, and in this city I died because of my daughters” – this, among other things, was written in the suicide note left next to the body of Esty Weinstein, which was found on Sunday in a car near the Ashdod beach. Weinstein, 50, a resident of…
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Life Don’t Blame Mikveh Attendants for a Broken System Created by Men
I’m not big on manicures. This is in part because my life is filled with things like typing and piano, so manicures make my hands feel pretty but useless – good for appearances and bad for actually creating stuff – and in part because cuticle-cutting is painful and often infection-inducing. One advantage of infrequent manicures…
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Life The Orthodox Feminist Revolution Has Finally Arrived — in London
Landing back in the Jewish community of my home town of London, U.K., after five years living overseas, I have the heady sensation of being caught up in a full-blown feminist revolution. Back in 2010 when I left for a four-year stint in the U.S. (followed by a year in Kenya), London felt like a…
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