Allison Kaplan Sommer (Haaretz)
By Allison Kaplan Sommer (Haaretz)
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Life A Woman’s Place Is in the Sukkah
Nobody intentionally set out to make Sukkot and Simchat Torah feminist holidays. Yet, slowly but surely, these two Jewish festivals have evolved into a time of year when the envelope is pushed when it comes to women’s participation, even in Orthodox communities in which egalitarian practice isn’t easily accepted. Over the past four years,…
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Life Should ‘Peeping Rabbi’ Barry Freundel Be Forgiven on Yom Kippur?
It was an impressive apology – even considering the fact that Rabbi Barry Freundel has been penning elaborate sermons about repentance and forgiveness for decades, and that, since he was sitting in solitary confinement in a Washington, DC jail when he penned his missive, he had plenty of time to refine it. “No matter how…
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Opinion Haunted by Holocaust, Israel Ponders Whether to Crack Door Open to Refugees
The world has been affected by the images of desperate refugees fleeing Syria, but for Israelis, the crisis cuts close to home, not only because the conflict they are fleeing is right across the border, but because pictures of the crowds at the Keleti train station and the marches across Europe are playing on the…
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Life Is Orthodox World Really To Blame for Faigy Mayer’s Suicide?
In bright pink paint, the words “Life is Beautiful” are splashed in graffiti on a wall in New York’s High Line, next to a young 30-year-old woman named Faigy Mayer brandishing a paint roller with a mischievous grin. The cover photo which illustrated countless tabloid news articles on Mayer’s death Tuesday, topped a Facebook timeline…
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Opinion Why Rachel Dolezal Story Hits Raw Nerve for Jews
If we needed proof that there is no such thing as local news anymore, the case of Rachel Dolezal provided it. The story of a president of an NAACP chapter and African studies professor essentially building a career around a fabricated ethnic identity – telling the world she was of African-American heritage when she is,…
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Life How the Hasidic Driving Ban Drove Great Britain Batty
It’s one thing for religious fundamentalist leaders – whether Jewish, Muslim, or Christian – to preach that limiting the freedom and independence of women is acceptable in the name of preserving traditional values, and for women in their communities to voluntarily submit to such restrictions. But putting such limitations on women in writing and turning…
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Life Is It Sexist To Call Ayelet Shaked the ‘Israeli Sarah Palin’?
“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” That was the tagline of a classic 1980’s shampoo commercial in the United States. A tweaked version of the slogan can be applied to Israel’s newly appointed Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked – she’s not hated because she’s beautiful. But the intensity with which she’s hated – and feared –…
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Life Why Did Orthodox Mayor Kill Bar and Bat Mitzvahs for Disabled?
You’d have to be made of stone to remain unmoved by the special bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies run Israeli children with disabilities At the event I attended a few years back, four boys and girls, dressed in their finest clothes, most in wheelchairs, others standing and walking, guided by family members took their place…
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