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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Opinion Those Rapping Bais Yaakov Girls Are Not Weird — Or Even Surprising
Jewish media outlets were surprised and delighted by a recent viral video of two Bais Yaakov girls rapping about Dor Yesharim, a genetic testing organization. I was delighted, too. Surprised? Not at all. While there was nothing shocking to me about two Orthodox teenage girls rapping, the responses to the video have been both surprising…
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Opinion It’s Time Orthodox Jews Speak Out Against Shomrim Patrol
The Brooklyn Hasidim accused of beating a young, gay black man named Taj Patterson back in 2013 are reportedly about to get a plea deal so sweet, they won’t serve a single day in prison. Patterson, who was beaten so badly that he was left blind in one eye, and who had homophobic slurs hurled…
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News How an Orthodox High School Takes Spammers to Court — and Reaps Rewards
Sometime in the late morning of November 27, 2012, a fax machine rang at a high school for Orthodox girls in Rockland County, New York. The message that spooled out of the machine’s printer was an invitation to an information session about a London-based university. The Orthodox school’s response to the fax? A lawsuit, filed…
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Life Orthodox Boxer Yuri Foreman’s Secrets of Success
I stood in a boxing ring at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn’s Dumbo, opposite Yuri Foreman, the onetime World Boxing Association super welterweight world champion. My left leg was forward; my knees were bent in a “boxing stance.” “One, two, slip, right upper jab, left hook,” Foreman directed, and I began the sequence, having learned what…
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Culture Meet New York’s Torah Truck King
I found Rabbi Shulem Korn in Queens as he was assembling one of his famous Torah Trucks. A white pickup was hooked to an ornately decorated trailer, a dramatic scene of Mount Sinai, surrounded by lightening, emblazoned on the side. I’d been trying to track down the rabbi for months, celebrated in New York for…
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News ‘Lost Tribe King’ from Togo Embraced by Orthodox Rabbis in Israel
A Togolese man, calling himself a king and descendant of an ancient Lost Tribe, has gained prominent Orthodox allies in Israel and even held a meeting with the Minister of Religious Affairs to request his people be recognized as a Lost Tribe of Israel. Francois A. Ayi, who describes himself as belonging to “one of…
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Fast Forward Donald Trump Courts the Orthodox Vote With Magazine Exclusives
On the eve of Donald J. Trump’s win in Indiana — and emergence as the presumptive Republican nominee — two of the country’s major Orthodox magazines boasted exclusive interviews with the presidential hopeful. Ami Magazine and Mispacha, Orthodox weeklies printed in Israel and the United States, carried cover stories of the business magnate and Republican…
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News Analysis: Investigations Strain De Blasio’s Carefully Cultivated Ties to Orthodox
Bill de Blasio’s persistent courting of New York City’s Orthodox community has reached a crossroads two years into his mayoral administration. The mayor has lavished favors on the Orthodox, restoring key political goodies that his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, eliminated, and creating major new programs with the Orthodox in mind. Yet for all those gestures, it’s…
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