— 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…
At day camps for young Satmar Hasidim, children hold mock protests — against the State of Israel. In video clips, captured this summer on cellphones and published by the religious website Yeshiva World News, campers are seen chanting “Israeli government, shame on you!” In another clip, children are seen pelting a car with eggs, made…
A brawl in a Williamsburg, Brooklyn grocery store has led to three assault charges and a wave of anger from some activists in the neighborhood’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. According to the local news site DNAinfo, the June 9 fight started when the Hasidic managers of the Central Market grocery store told a teenager that he…
Amid growing tensions over the burial of drowned Satmar leader Yitzchok Rosenberg, elected officials are streaming to memorial gatherings for the Brooklyn businessman. New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams have both attended the shiva gatherings for Rosenberg, the president of the central religious organization in Brooklyn of the followers…
Chaos erupted last week at the upstate New York graveside of Yitzhak Rosenberg after leaders decided to bury the powerful Hasidic businessman next to Grand Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum, which some in the ultra-Orthodox community denounced as a sacrilege. Explosive video depicts scuffles that broke out at the Wednesday burial of Rosenberg, a controversial businessman who…
A powerful Hasidic leader has slammed a bill in the New York State Legislature that would enforce laws that require religious schools to teach secular subjects. Moderate Jewish groups that are normally vocal on religious education issues, meanwhile, are staying silent. The bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee in early May, is one of two…
Federal raids last week of yeshivas in Brooklyn and in Rockland and Orange Counties in New York have set Hasidic communities on edge, as concern spreads about a possible government crackdown on Orthodox exploitation of the federal E-Rate technology subsidy program. Now, the Forward has learned that Hasidic leaders believe that the Federal Bureau of…
We already know everything about the Jewish stars at the Oscars, but one inspiring Jewish star is ditching the Academy Awards this years and spending the night in Flint, Michigan. Jussie Smolett of smash-hit TV show “Empire,” will be joining “Creed” director Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay (“Selma”), Janelle Monae and many other artists in Flint,…
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