Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Hasidic Judaism, a sub-group of Haredi Judaism that adheres to the historical traditions of Eastern European Jews, including communicating in Yiddish.
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Fast Forward Menachem Mendel Taub, Hasidic Dynasty Head Devoted To Holocaust Memory, Dies At 96
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Menachem Mendel Taub, the Rebbe of the Kaliv Hasidic dynasty in Jerusalem, who devoted his life to memorializing the Holocaust and helping fellow survivors, has died. Taub died on Sunday at the age of 96 at his home in Jerusalem. His health had declined since a fall in his home two weeks…
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Fast Forward Yeshivas Escape State Review After Judge’s Ruling
Yeshiva supporters are cheering a decision issued by an Albany judge on Wednesday, which rolls back the controversial new guidelines regulating private school education that state education authorities laid out late last year. The decision, written by State Supreme Court Judge Christina Ryba, comes in a lawsuit brought by the pro-yeshiva advocacy group PEARLS, among…
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Fast Forward The Last Holocaust-Era Rebbe Dies, And A Neighborhood Shuts Down To Mourn
The Brooklyn neighborhood of Boro Park is all but shutting down on Wednesday to mark the death of Rabbi Yisroel Avrohom Portugal, 95, the last Holocaust-era rebbe to lead a significant Hasidic sect. Portugal, who served as the rebbe of the Skulen Hasidic group since his father’s death in 1982, was imprisoned in Romania in…
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Life The Renegade Street Photographer Of Boro Park
On 16th Avenue and 48th, in the heart of Boro Park, Avi Kaye — not his real name — is sitting in his car, camera ready. “He’s going to come out soon,” he mutters. We’re parked outside the Beis Midrash Emunas Yisroel synagogue, waiting for one subject — a regular at this shul, who will…
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Life Why Do Hasidic Men Button Their Shirts The Wrong Way?
On any given weekday, walk into just about any Hasidic synagogue, and you’ll see a rabbi bending over a lectern, dressed in a well-pressed sports jacket for shacharit (morning) prayers. His jacket has been scrupulously tested for shatnez and deemed kosher to wear, but something still seems off — his black buttons are twisted so…
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News Crown Heights Jews Feel ‘Invisible’ As Anti-Semitic Attacks Persist
Just before 1 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, a 22-year-old man was sucker-punched while speaking on the phone in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. A few minutes earlier, a 51-year-old man nearby was knocked down and beaten. Neither had anything stolen from them. Both were Jewish. The twin attacks, from the same group of three assailants, make…
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Forverts in English How Sephardic Culture Shaped Ultra-Orthodox Judaism
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Sephardi Jews often complain that Ashkenazim dominate Jewish culture to the point that they are losing aspects of their own cultural identity. The way one studies in a typical Yeshiva, the type of food eaten in honor of the Sabbath, the music, the men’s clothing, everything symbolizing…
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News Why Do Some Ultra-Orthodox Jews Defy Their Rebbes And Refuse Measles Vaccines?
“Minke” used to get her kids vaccinated, though she never felt right about it. The thought of injecting her children with a foreign substance — one that might cause them to run a fever or have an allergic reaction — scared her, even if it might protect them from measles, polio and other life-threatening diseases….
Most Popular
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Culture Why saying ‘L’shana Tova’ on Rosh Hashanah may not be the correct phrase
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Culture A Jewish prophet of the 1980s would be horrified to see that we didn’t heed his warnings
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Opinion With killing of Hezbollah’s chief, Israel occupies the inarguable moral high ground
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Opinion This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
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Film & TV How Leonard Cohen — and a Yom Kippur prayer — inspired a coming-of-age epic
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Opinion A year after Oct. 7, Israel has the chance to remake its future — for better or worse
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Opinion Campus protests defined the year since Oct. 7. Could they actually change U.S. policy?
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Special Report At the kibbutz hit hardest on Oct. 7, a wrenching debate over how to rebuild
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