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 American Jewish Unity In Favor of Egalitarian Kotel Is a Fiction
It might be hard to imagine the hardline Israeli Haredi parties and the hardline feminist “Original Women of the Wall” group as occupying the same library, much less the same page. But that’s where they find themselves. It’s not just that both are hardline, and that both reject the compromise idea of an egalitarian Western…
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Opinion Get Tested for STDs This Month — It’s a Mitzvah
April is . Throughout the month, there will be events held, lessons given, and materials distributed to encourage people across the United States — straight, gay, married, cis, trans, rich or poor — to practice safe sex. All will be encouraged to get tested for STDs. At a time when the practice of safe sex,…
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Fast Forward Top Court: Israel Must Accept Non-Rabbinate Orthodox Conversions
TEL AVIV — Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the state must recognize Orthodox conversions performed in Israel outside the authority of the Chief Rabbinate. The ruling Thursday means any non-citizen who converts in a private Israeli Orthodox conversion court can gain Israeli citizenship under the country’s Law of Return. Previously, converts could only gain Israeli…
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Fast Forward Mayor Declares Attempts By Orthodox Jews To Buy Up Homes an ‘Invasion’
The mayor of a town adjacent to the Orthodox Jewish stronghold of Lakewood, New Jersey, says a comment he made about Jewish home buyers invading his town does not make him anti-Semitic. Thomas Kelaher, the mayor of Toms River, was quoted in a recent Bloomberg News story as saying that Orthodox Jews are trying to…
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Fast Forward Women’s Western Wall Prayer Session Attacked by Ultra-Orthodox Protesters
A women’s prayer service at the Western Wall was disturbed by protesting haredi Orthodox men and women. The Original Women of the Wall group held morning services on Monday using a small Torah scroll that they smuggled in for the service. The more than 20 women were wearing prayer shawls and phylacteries. According to a…
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Opinion Coming Out as a Gay Orthodox Talmud Teacher
“What is it like to be a Soloveichik?” This question about my well-known rabbinic family name has accompanied me for much of my life. My grandfather was Ahron Soloveichik and my great-uncle was Joseph B. Soloveitchik. The questions about my identity became even more complex when, three years ago, I came out as gay in…
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News Do Buyers Plan To Silence FailedMessiah.com?
There’s a media mystery developing around the anonymous new owners of the muckraking blog FailedMessiah, and growing signs the site’s harsh criticism of the Orthodox community may be permanently silenced. Shmarya Rosenberg, who ran FailedMessiah singlehandedly for more than a decade, announced February 2 that he was moving on. Days later, questions about the blog’s…
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News Remarkable Life of ‘Angel’ David Wichs Ends in Flash of Manhattan Crane Collapse
David Wichs’ remarkable life of achievement and Jewish compassion started in Communist Czechoslovakia 38 years ago. He came to Brooklyn with his parents, earned a doctorate in math from Harvard and lived in a brownstone on the Upper West Side. He just celebrated his third wedding anniversary. It all ended in a flash on a…
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