Haredi
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Life Visiting My Ultra-Orthodox Brother, A World Apart
My daughter and I step out of the car into the dry heat: Jerusalem, midday, August. An oven on Turbo Grill. She wears a maxi skirt to her ankles and beseeches me to pull down my just-above-the-knee dress and tie decorative ties near my neck to cover any trace of cleavage. I poo-poo her; I’m…
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Israel News Meet Dan Gertler, The Israeli Billionaire Diamond Dealer In The Paradise Papers
The trove of leaked financial documents known as the Paradise Papers, have put Israeli businessman Dan Gertler in the spotlight, a position he usually avoids. Gertler, who at the age of 43 has a net worth estimated at $1.2 billion, made his fortune from mining diamonds and other materials in Africa. According to the leaked…
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Opinion Growing Up Ultra-Orthodox, There Was No Shame In Being Poor
This essay is part of our ongoing series, Outside the Bubble: Class and Inequality in the Jewish Community. It explores the class divides in Jewish communities of all denominations, and the financial struggles belonging to these communities can incur. Please email your thoughts and essays to batya@forward.com. In the ultra-Orthodox community in which I grew…
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Life Orthodox Women Face ‘Frum-Shaming’ Campaign Over ‘Immodest’ Wigs
Digital flyers were recently sent among the Orthodox community’s wig makers. The senders’ names were kept anonymous. “Dear Jewish women,” the flyer’s message screamed in all-caps. “How badly are you trying to look like a prostitute? How important is it for you to slap G-d in the face?!” The flyer featured a collage of images…
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Community Why I Chose To Attend Public High School Even Though I’m Ultra-Orthodox
Noticing the black velvet yarmulke atop my dark brown hair, many of the students at my new school assumed that I was Muslim. In the beginning of my freshman year, I enrolled in Baltimore City College High School (“City”) in Baltimore, Maryland after attending ultra-Orthodox schools or “yeshivas” in Maryland for the prior 14 years….
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Life Why Gender-Segregated Education Is Essential For The Ultra-Orthodox
Here in Israel, several academics have found a new reason to rally together: They’ve created a nationwide campaign against gender-segregated higher education programs, developed specifically for ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) students. In petitioning Israel’s High Court to close such programs, these university professors hope to “halt the trend of women’s exclusion from spreading to other institutions around…
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Life Is Drinking Alcohol A Rite Of Passage Into The Fraternity Of Orthodoxy?
This past Simchat Torah, a friend and I watched warily as one of the congregants, usually a composed professional type, staggered around the front lawn of the synagogue, drunk and mumbling to himself. Inside, the other men of the congregation were bidding on aliyahs and other honors for the upcoming year, their wallets loosened thanks…
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Life Is The Media’s Obsession With Hasidic Jews Anti-Semitic?
Our news feeds and Shabbos tables are abuzz with talk of ‘One of Us’, the latest Netflix film by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (the creators of Jesus Camp), about the lives of those who leave the Hasidic community and are ostracized. I confess: I will not be watching this documentary. This isn’t out of…
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