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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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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Fast Forward Orthodox Donor Jeremiah Reichberg Busted With Top New York Police Brass as Corruption Probe Widens
Three New York City police commanders and a business consultant were arrested on Monday as part of a wide-ranging federal corruption probe that has also been examining Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fundraising. The latest arrests mark an escalation of an investigation that has led to discipline for nearly a dozen police officers and forced de…
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Fast Forward Divided Israeli Town Ordered To Take Down Ultra-Orthodox ‘Modesty’ Signs
A group of Beit Shemesh women fighting to remove “modesty signs” plastered around their city won a key battle in court. The Jerusalem District Court gave Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul three weeks to remove the illegal signs and to act more vigilantly against offenders. Some of the signs instruct women how to dress, requiring…
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Opinion What We Orthodox Jews Must Do To Save the Western Wall
On Thursday afternoon, around 500 men and women gathered in the Southern Plaza of the Western Wall — a stone piazza commonly used for swearing in soldiers or taking an iconic tourist selfie near Judaism’s holiest site — to hold a defiant afternoon prayer service in response to what they feel was a terrible display…
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