Debra Nussbaum Cohen is an award-winning journalist and the author of Celebrating Your New Jewish Daughter: Creating Jewish Ways to Welcome Baby Girls into the Covenant. Follow her on Instagram @debranc or email her at [email protected].
Debra Nussbaum Cohen
By Debra Nussbaum Cohen
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Life In Brooklyn, Dressing for the Back of the Bus
It used to be that while walking in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on a fine spring day or attending wedding in nearby Boro Park, you would see how stylish Haredi women could be. Modestly attired to be sure, with heads cloaked in hats over wigs and clothing safely reaching to above the collarbone, to the wrist and…
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Life Debbie Friedman’s Enduring Gift
Soon after Debbie Friedman died about a year ago — her first yartzheit is later this month — I heard about the version of “Shalom Aleichem” she penned and shared, but never had a chance to record. Now, I love the “original” tune with which many of us are familiar. I used to sing it…
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Life How ‘Modesty’ Turns Women Into Sex Objects
William Kolbrener has a compelling new essay in the Forward about the culture of silence between men and women in his Haredi Jerusalem neighborhood. In it, he notes the deep disrespect for women and girls to which it leads, as illustrated by the arrogant way a man clucks his tongue at Kolbrener’s daughter and her…
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News Clergy Push Debbie Friedman Song
About two weeks before she died, Debbie Friedman stood with Rabbi Joy Levitt at the piano in Levitt’s Manhattan apartment, and she shared with her friend a melody that the legendary singer and composer would never have the chance to record. It was a new version of “Shalom Aleichem,” the hymn traditionally sung Friday evenings…
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Life In Israel, Remembering Who I Used To Be
Jennifer Bleyer’s recent Sisterhood piece about the unexpected pleasures of her so-called “mama furlough” reminds me how much I have enjoyed my annual week, alone in my house, when my husband takes our kids camping. I recently took the next step toward remembering who I used to be. For the first time in nearly 18…
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Life Interfaith Mom Is Wrong About Chrismukkah
Dear Susan Katz Miller: Most of the points you make in your recent HuffPo piece, “8 Reasons My Interfaith Family Celebrates Hanukkah and Christmas,” make so little sense, from where I sit as a Jewish mother, that I feel compelled to respond. I am aware that by doing so I am wading into the roiling…
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Opinion The Shearing Heard ‘Round the Hasidic World
Never before has the shaving of one man’s beard prompted such an outcry. When Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu posted pics, early Tuesday, of his newly-shaven (and nearly unrecognizable) face, and later posted a statement on his blog saying that there’s “no more Chassidic reggae superstar” and “sorry folks, all you get is me….no alias,” many…
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The Schmooze Matisyahu Shows Off Startling New Look
Reggae star Matisyahu has shaved his long beard, posted photos of his startling new look on Twitter, and is now saying that he is disavowing the Hasidic life he has led for the past decade. Tuesday morning, with the photos, he tweeted a somewhat cryptic line that seemed to explain at least part of his…
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