This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish women and women’s issues.
Women
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Opinion My Fight To Lay Tefillin At an Orthodox School
A young woman prays wearing tefillin on April 11, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel. / Getty Images On December 8, 2013, SAR High School principal Rabbi Naphtali Harcsztark permitted students Ronit Morris and Yael Marans to lay tefillin in the school’s daily women’s prayer group, allowing them to do so within the school building. While this…
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Culture How Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’ Rescued My American Dream
I discovered “Girls” when it was well into the second season. I had lived in New York for several months to attend the Columbia University School of Journalism. The initial excitement of being in the City That Never Sleeps had waned. I had gotten used to discovering that almost every other person I met was…
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The Schmooze Check Out Lena Dunham’s Vogue Cover
Lena Dunham is on the cover of a fashion magazine. And not just any fashion magazine, but the mother of all fashion magazines. The girl who only days ago was on E!’s Worst Dressed list for her canary yellow Zac Posen dress at the Golden Globes is now on the cover of Vogue. The “Girls”…
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Culture The Problem With ‘Girls’ Is Men
I am not a girl, but “Girls” is about me. Like the characters on the HBO show — which begins its third season January 12 — I am in my 20s, white, middle class and live in Brooklyn. I work in a creative field, have friends who are actors and baristas, and sometimes, to my…
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Opinion Sarah Silverman Hailed As Prophetess in Israel
Comedian Sarah Silverman has been called many things, but never a prophetess. Until yesterday, when she was given prophetic credentials in the magazine section of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot. The accolade comes from an interview with her sister, Jerusalem-based Reform rabbi (and one of the Forward 50 list of important Jews) Susan Silverman, which…
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The Schmooze Get Ready for Lena Dunham on the Cover of Vogue
(JTA) — Not only is “Girls” coming soon to a small screen near you (that’s Sunday January 12th on HBO, in case you haven’t yet set a phone alert)—it’s also hitting the newsstands (that’s where you can find magazines printed on glossy paper, in case you were born anytime after 1990.) According to Page Six,…
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News Ultra-Orthodox Women Act on Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’ Gospel
Sheryl Sandberg has come to ultra-Orthodox Monsey, N.Y. — or at least her gospel has. The walls of the Orthodox school assembly hall in which her message is delivered are bare white, but for three posters with Hebrew writing, and six larger-than-life paper teddy bears. But the roughly 100 women who fill the hall on…
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Opinion How Good Is Israel’s New Abortion Policy?
A doctor performs a sonogram on a pregnant woman on November 9, 2011. / Getty Images It’s not every day that progressives get to see encouraging policy changes coming out of Israel, so we should celebrate them when they do come along — even if they don’t go quite as far as we might like….
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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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Culture At Eurovision, Israel’s near triumph shows the limits of tolerance
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Feds charge man with organizing synagogue attacks in Europe and NYC on behalf of Iran
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Yiddish אַ שוועבנדיקע הילצערנע שיל בײַם ווענעציער ביענאַליי פֿון 2026 A floating wooden synagogue at the 2026 Venice Biennale
אין פֿאַרגלײַך מיט די פֿיזישע פּאַוויליאָנען געשאַפֿן פֿון אָפֿיציעלע לענדער איז דער ייִדישלאַנד־פּאַוויליאָן געבויט אויף אידעעס
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News Mamdani Nakba Day video prompts pushback from Jewish leaders amid rising tensions
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Yiddish World Molly Crabapple’s book is well researched but ideologically biased