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Opinion Israel Gets Gender-Segregated Elevator — Finally!
Gender-segregated elevator in Jerusalem / Walla Apparently, gender-segregated classrooms, playgrounds, buses, sidewalks and healthcare centers aren’t enough. Now Israel has gender-segregated elevators. Yosef Cohen, the owner of Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox event venue Armonot Chen, has started divvying up elevator space using a nylon mechitza, with stickers inside and outside the elevator directing men to one side…
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News Ultra-Orthodox Rabbis Urge Women To Limit Internet Use
Ultra-Orthodox rabbis sought to enlist ultra-Orthodox women in their push to limit Internet use at a rally in Boro Park, Brooklyn on May 29, saying that women are responsible for controlling web access by their husbands and families. Speaking to a crowd of 10,000 women, a panel of rabbis warned of the dangers posed by…
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Life On Jewish Women and Facial Hair
Thinkstock The first time I thought about facial hair was in high school, when a boy, whom I considered a friend, informed me that I had more hair on my upper lip than he did. I didn’t do anything about it then — it had been enough of a fight with my mother to let…
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Opinion Coma Case Could Mean Leap Forward for Agunot
A woman gestures at a Jerusalem demonstration to help agunot / Haaretz We’re familiar with the stories of recalcitrant husbands who refuse to give their wives a get, a religious writ of divorce, effectively preventing them from remarrying. But less discussed is the heart-wrenching experience of women whose husbands are alive, but unable to interact…
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Life Mothering My Jewish Mother
Sarah Seltzer Last week, a few days before Mother’s Day (and my mom’s birthday, which always falls at the same time of year), I stood on the street near Morningside Park in Upper Manhattan with my mother, venting and kibbitzing. I was on my way home from work, she had biked up to say hi….
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Opinion Talking to the Rabbis About Sex
An ultra-Orthodox bride at her Jerusalem wedding in 2014. / Getty Images This past Sunday, I spoke about sexuality and modesty in front of a group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis. Both professionally and personally, it was a profound moment for me, a formerly ultra-Orthodox woman, to sit there and name experiences that the ultra-Orthodox community hasn’t…
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Music Women Move Towards Approval as First Israel Kosher Supervisors
(JTA) — In a step that further expands the opportunities for women to serve as recognized authorities in Jewish law, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate for the first time is allowing women to serve as kosher supervisors. Nine women took the Chief Rabbinate’s kosher supervision exam last week in Jerusalem. Should they pass, they would become…
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Fast Forward Anita Diamant’s ‘The Red Tent’ To Become Miniseries
“The Red Tent,” a best-selling novel by Anita Diamant, is being made into a four-hour miniseries by the Lifetime network. The miniseries, based on a book that explores the lives of women in ancient biblical times, is expected to be broadcast later this year. It begins production this month in Morocco. First published in 1997,…
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Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
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Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
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Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
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Fast Forward Columbia staff receive texts asking if they’re Jewish, as government hunts antisemitic harassment on campus
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish מחשבֿות פֿון אַן אַהיים־געקומענעם (אַ מלחמה־טאָגגבוך)Reflections of a soldier after returning home (a wartime diary)
דער מחבר איז אַ סטודענט אינעם ירושלימער העברעיִשן אונ׳, אינעם צווייטן יאָר ייִדיש־לימוד
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Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
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News At Harvard, reports on antisemitism and anti-Palestinian bias reflect campus conflict over Israel
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Opinion Is JB Pritzker’s very Jewish toughness the key to fighting Trump?
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