Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll is the co-founder of Chochmat Nashim, an Israeli NGO dedicated to battling extremism and raising the voice of women in the Jewish conversation. Follow her on Twitter, @skjask
Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll
By Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll
-
Life Conversations With The Ultra-Orthodox Women Fighting For Their Rights
Knesset member Aliza Lavie is blond, poised — and whip smart. I caught her on her way out of the Knesset after yet another dead-end meeting with its ultra-Orthodox members, discussing women’s rights. “Ultra-Orthodox parties are taking women backwards. Everything I try to do, they block,” she said, her voice rising with frustration. “Everything I’ve…
-
Opinion What Do I Tell My Children About Stabbings Here in Israel?
“Why do we let them stay? Why, when they just walk up to us and kill us, why do we let them stay?!” This was the tormented question my daughter asked me last night at the news of yet another fatal stabbing. A 29-year-old father of four, Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal, was stabbed to death…
-
Opinion Religious Women Are Fighting To Take Back Their Neighborhood From Ultra-Orthodox Extremists
In the 10 years I’ve lived in Beit Shemesh, I have seen things I thought I’d never see. I’ve seen signs telling women what to wear and signs ordering them to walk down a specific staircase. I’ve seen young girls spit on and called shiksas. I’ve been spit on, for trying to protect these girls….
-
Opinion Why Is No One Talking About Ahed Tamimi’s Call For Stabbings?
The sight of a young, unarmed woman standing up to heavily armed soldiers will always be a powerful one. This was certainly the case with a recent video seen around the world — that of Ahed Tamimi, the teenaged Palestinian girl who stood against the mighty IDF and was subsequently arrested. Who could resist the…
-
Life Orthodox Women Win Battle Against Modesty Signs
Today, once again, Israel’s secular courts came to the rescue of Jewish women. In a dramatic hearing at the Israeli Supreme Court, three judges ordered the city of Beit Shemesh to remove all signs limiting the freedom of dress or movement of women in public spaces. In the culmination of a five-year battle begun by…
-
Opinion How ‘Moderate’ Ultra-Orthodox Aid And Abet Extremism In Israel
In his recent article, “How CNN’s ‘Believer’ Smears Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox As Intolerant ‘Black Peril’” published in the Forward, Rabbi Avi Shafran takes issue with CNN religion reporter Reza Aslan’s portrayal of Haredi Jews in Israel as “bent on creating an oppressive theocracy.” Shafran, who believes Aslan’s piece maligned the Haredi, used his op-ed to depict…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US
- 2
Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite.
- 3
Opinion Just about every interpretation of Trump’s narrow election victory is wrong
- 4
News Your complete guide to Trump’s Jewish advisers and pro-Israel cabinet
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion After all that controversy, here’s why Ta-Nehisi Coates (probably) didn’t change any minds on Israel-Palestine
-
Looking Forward How a Jewish student at Columbia became an icon of a movement
-
Culture At 95, Shaindel Schreiber is still dispensing babka and advice on the Lower East Side
-
Fast Forward Fighting antisemitism is ‘an American issue’ not a Democratic or Republican one, says House Democratic leader
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
