This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish women and women’s issues.
Women
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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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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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Opinion Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point
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News They texted about Torah and mitzvahs. Feds say they were insider trading
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Opinion I run The Jewish Theological Seminary. Here’s the real story about President Isaac Herzog speaking at our commencement
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Fast Forward Talarico won’t campaign with Democratic House candidate who wants to open ‘a prison for American Zionists’
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish World Molly Crabapple’s book is well researched but ideologically biased
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News At Trump’s Christian revival on the National Mall, one rabbi made a Jewish case for America
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Fast Forward California judge says Kars4Kids misled donors by omitting Orthodox Jewish mission from ads
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Fast Forward Pacific Palisades Jews, displaced by fire, reopen their synagogue as part of returning home