Gabrielle Birkner
By Gabrielle Birkner
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Life Digest: Rewriting the Book of Ruth; Shavuotinis; Women of Valor
Sisterhood Digest: • New Israeli census numbers are out, showing that Jewish Israeli women bear fewer children, on average (2.1) than their Muslim (3) Christian (2.2.) and Druze (2.7) counterparts. • The Gloss sits down with Tamar Reich, an observant Jew and former Krav Maga instructor who recently opened New York City’s first all-female performing arts…
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Culture The Salon Celebrates Five Episodes; Sara Hurwitz Is on the Panel
Rabba Sara Hurwitz, the Foundation for Jewish Culture’s President and CEO Elise Bernhardt and the author of “Sabbath World,” Judith Shulevitz, are guests on the fifth episode of The Salon, The Jewish Channel’s women’s issues chat show. Discussion topics include the debate over Orthodox women serving in the rabbinate in light of a major rabbinic…
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Life Does Judaism Endorse Female Genital Cutting? No, But…
In an effort to prevent female genital cutting, the American Academy of Pediatrics last week released a policy statement endorsing the use of a “ritual nick” on a female baby’s genitals. Doing so, the Academy writes, could “save some girls from undergoing disfiguring and life-threatening procedures in their native country.” The cutting, which is also…
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The Schmooze Forward ‘Nigun Project’ Contributor Nominated for a Tony
The Forward has a Tony Award nominee in its midst. The nominations were announced today, and among those up for Broadway’s top honor is Sahr Ngaujah — nominated for his leading role in the musical “Fela!” about the life of the Nigerian afrobeat musician Fela Kuti. As you may remember, Sahr worked with Forward artist-in-residence…
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Life RCA: No Women Rabbis, No Matter What They’re Called
The Rabbinical Council of America, the main umbrella group for centrist Orthodox rabbis, just released its position statements, which were adopted this week at its annual conference. Here’s what the RCA had to say about women’s spiritual and executive leadership within Orthodoxy: The flowering of Torah study and teaching by God-fearing Orthodox women in recent…
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Life Digest: WSJ on Sara Hurwitz; Bat Mitzvah Girl in a Catsuit
The Sisterhood Digest: • In advance of next week’s RCA convention, at which women’s leadership is slated to be discussed,The Wall Street Journal has a piece on the maharat-rabba-back-to-maharat debate. • Rachel Lester, a 15-year-old who attends a Modern Orthodox high school, has been elected Los Angeles’ youngest-ever public representative. • The New York Post…
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Life Podcasting with The Sisterhood and Lilith
The Sisterhood blog and the “frankly feminist” Jewish magazine, Lilith, are jointly producing a series of podcasts about Jewish women’s issues. In our inaugural discussion, Forward and Lilith editors weigh in on what Sara Hurwitz and other Orthodox women serving in rabbinic roles should be called, revitalizing the word “yenta,” and the growing role food…
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Life Digest: When Is It Okay to Laugh at Jewish Women?
The Sisterhood Digest: • Haaretz profiles Tzvia Greenfield of Meretz, the first Haredi female Knesset member. Greenfield, a peace activist and mother of five, says she is troubled that Orthodox women today are expected to bear more children than they were in decades past: “Large families thirty years ago was six children; now there’s 13…
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