JERUSALEM (JTA) — The names of both parents who adopt a baby in Israel must be registered on its birth certificate even if both parents are the same sex. Israel’s Supreme Court made the ruling on Wednesday in response to a lawsuit filed by a homosexual couple who claimed they were being discriminated against since…
The recent Forward article, “‘My Dark Secret’: Orthodox Women Reveal Their Abortion Stories,” is heart-wrenching to read, but brings up topics crucial to discuss. Not just in the Orthodox community, but in the entire Jewish community. One story (New York, 26 years old, 8 weeks pregnant) reads of a single woman’s painful journey to abortion…
Is Jewish continuity inherently sexist? In some people’s minds, like the author of a recent op-ed in these pages, Jewish continuity is toxically identified with Jewish sociologist Steven M. Cohen. I’m neither judge nor jury, but if the #MeToo allegations against Cohen are true, and they may well be, the prominent sociologist should be held…
A version of this article originally appeared in Plus61J, an Australian-Jewish publication. Growing up in a Jewish household in suburban Sydney, Australia, Denise Langman always knew she was adopted. Her parents made no secret of the fact they first met her as a 10-month-old at the Scarba Welfare House for Children in Bondi, a Victorian…
Every morning I wake up and pray to God that today I will not have to write any articles about Howard Stern. Today is not that day. Howard Stern and his wife Beth Stern, an actress, writer, and activist in her own right, are fostering a three-month old kitten whose owner has been charged with…
“My third favorite sister, you guys!” Sarah Silverman exclaimed, welcoming one of her three sisters, the Jerusalem-based Reform rabbi Susan Silverman, to the talk show “I Love You, America.” In a brief, but stunningly specific, discussion on Sarah Silverman’s new Hulu show that aired around Thanksgiving, the sisters spent eight minutes lying on a bed,…
Lying on my living room floor in pain, surrounded by the pile of my daughter’s stuffies that broke my fall, I came to two realizations: 1) sofas don’t make good stepladders, and 2) Jews are just not built to hang holiday lights. For the first time in my life, I was decorating my place for…
The Torah is rooted in a belief of embracing community and family, celebrating diversity and inclusiveness, and upholding traditions. A constant thread throughout these beliefs is our work to improve the lives of children in the U.S. and across the world. As the Talmud says, “Whoever raises an orphan in their home, scripture considers them…
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