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Life The Bat Mitzvah Girl Who Made Kotel History
Bat mitzvah girl Sasha Lutt reads from a tiny Torah scroll smuggled into the Kotel / Haaretz I am sitting in front of my computer, talking via Skype with three women in Israel — Irina Lutt, her 12-year-old daughter Sasha, and Shira Pruce — who are kicking back after a day of school and work….
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Opinion Israeli Soldiers Create Least Sexy Pin-Up Ever
Just a couple of months after the Gaza war, Israel has found a new way “to show the world the beauty of Israel and its people” — via the power of a pin-up calendar featuring real IDF soldiers. Or, as the creators of the MTKL Israeli Army Women Calendar like to call them, “the chosen amongst…
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News Women of Wall Slip Torah Scroll Into Western Wall Bat Mitzvah
(Haaretz) — Defying regulations by Western Wall rabbinic authorities, members of Women of the Wall smuggled a tiny Torah scroll into the women’s section of the Kotel Friday morning, in what the feminist prayer group said was the first reading from the Torah by women at the holy site in 25 years. The tiny scroll,…
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Books Lena Dunham’s Not That Kind of Author
● Not that Kind of Girl By Lena Dunham Random House, 265 Pages, $28 I like Lena Dunham. I liked “Delusional Downtown Divas,” her web series for Index Magazine. I liked “Tiny Furniture,” her 2010 film. And I like “Girls” (except for that one episode at the end of the first season when Jessa married…
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Fast Forward Jerusalem Bus Ads Featuring Women in Prayer Shawls Vandalized
Several public buses featuring photos of young women wearing kippot and prayer shawls were vandalized in Jerusalem. The buses had their tires slashed and ads defaced with spray paint in the haredi Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. Haredi men were responsible for the vandalism, according to reports. The bus advertisements, launched last week by the…
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Life After Mikveh Scandal, Make Us Feel Clean Again
It’s time for Simchat Torah, but I don’t feel much like dancing. A promise I made long ago has been broken. In the summer of 1986, I wrote what many consider the first piece about non-Orthodox women using the mikvah. Published in Lilith Magazine, in “Take Back the Waters” I proposed a feminist re-appropriation of…
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Fast Forward Rabbi Avi Weiss, Progressive Voice in Orthodoxy, Steps Down From Pulpit
Rabbi Avi Weiss, a religiously progressive voice within Orthodoxy who has spearheaded the push to give women a greater role in the faith, announced he is stepping down on Thursday. Speaking from the pulpit of his Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, Weiss told the packed congregation of his plans to end his tenure as rabbi. Many…
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Opinion It’s Time To Put Women in Charge of the Mikveh
Illustration by Lily Padula A respected rabbi installing cameras in the preparation room of the mikveh in the building next door to his synagogue? The sensationalistic story of alleged voyeur Rabbi Barry Freundel seems tailor-made to go viral in our internet age. So what can be done to counteract the negative publicity this gives to…
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Opinion How a hostage’s brother became a hero in Israel
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Fast Forward Prominent Israeli writers and US Jewish leaders rally behind east Jerusalem bookstore that was raided by police
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