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Fast Forward More Orthodox Women Dance With Scroll for Simchat Torah
(Haaretz) — Just how progressive is your local Orthodox synagogue? Probably the best way to find out is to pay a visit during Simchat Torah, the holiday that starts at sundown on Wednesday, and take note: Are women sitting behind the mechitza – the partition that separates them from the men – looking bored and…
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Life We Are All (Fill in the Blank) Jews
Courtesy Leigh Shulman I was recently e-mailing with a woman I know and told her how I planned to take a couple days off for Rosh Hashanah. I haven’t been to synagogue in years, but I do mark the holiday by spending time with family. “You’re Jewish?” she asked surprised, immediately mentioning the ultra-Orthodox crowd…
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Fast Forward Women of Wall Push for Bat Mitzvahs at Western Wall
Women of the Wall launched an ad campaign on public buses in Jerusalem to promote bat mitzvah ceremonies for girls at the Western Wall. The ads unveiled on Sunday evening feature Israeli girls ages 11 to 14 wearing a prayer shawl and holding a Torah scroll in front of the Western Wall. The ad reads…
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Fast Forward Women Can Dance With Scroll on Simchat Torah
Women are permitted to dance with a Torah scroll on the Simchat Torah holiday, a national-religious rabbinical organization has ruled. The Beit Hillel organization posted the religious ruling on its website. The ruling also encourages synagogues to be more inclusive of the elderly, the youth and people with disabilities during the holiday celebration, which includes…
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Life Bringing Malala Into Bat Mitzvah Ceremony
You would have to have a heart encrusted with cynicism to not be moved by Malala Yousafzai. It is, in many ways, a modern miracle. An activist for equal education for young girls in her native Pakistan, Malala survived a Taliban bullet and expanded her local quest into an international movement for women’s education in…
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Fast Forward Orthodox School Evicted in Flashpoint Beit Shemesh
A haredi Orthodox girls school that began operating on one floor of secular school in Beit Shemesh must vacate the building. Under an agreement struck with the Jerusalem District Court, the Mishekenot Da’at school will move out of the second floor of the of the secular Safot VeTarbuyot school and operate out of mobile classrooms…
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Israel News El Al Grapples With Gender Segregation Furor
For approximately a half hour at the beginning of her El Al Israel Airlines flight last week from New York to Tel Aviv, Elana Sztokman watched as the haredi Orthodox man seated next to her rushed up and down the aisle searching for someone willing to switch seats so he wouldn’t have to sit beside…
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Fast Forward Petition Calls on El Al to Protect Female Passengers From Haredi Harassment
Hundreds have signed an online petition calling on El Al Airlines to protect female passengers from being harassed by haredi Orthodox men. The petition on Change.org was launched Sunday, days after an El Al flight from New York to Tel Aviv was delayed in taking off when haredi Orthodox male passengers refused to sit next…
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