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.
Hasidic
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News Is Rebbe Schneerson The Jewish Messiah? Faith Survives In Chabad.
The Messiah is coming — again. That was the message at a conference of rabbis from around the world, held the weekend before Thanksgiving in Brooklyn. The keynote speaker said he believed, at his “inner core,” that the late leader of the far-reaching Chabad-Lubavitch movement would soon return to prepare the world for redemption. “It…
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Fast Forward Emails Detail Hasidic Power Broker’s Direct Line To De Blasio’s Office
A new trove of emails shows how a Hasidic rabbi and power broker from Brooklyn received five-star treatment from New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio and his staff after hosting a fundraiser for them, the New York Post reported. Moishe Indig, a Brooklyn landlord and member of the Satmar Hasidic sect, had direct access…
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Life Judge Ruchie Freier Is A Hasidic Role Model. I Wish I Had Her Opportunities.
If someone knew about the Hasidic community only by learning about it through recent stories in the mainstream press, I would not blame that person for coming away with confusing and contradictory perceptions. This season we saw the release of the Netflix documentary “One of Us,” in which the three protagonists describe a Hasidism of…
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News Why A Sleepy New Jersey Suburb Targeted Hasidic Jews With ‘Anti-Semitic’ Laws
When a Holocaust survivor took the microphone last summer at a city council meeting in Mahwah, New Jersey, tensions were already running high. Hundreds of people filled the hall as Sami Steigmann, 78, sat before the township’s mayor and council. The meeting happened amid rising concerns by residents that ultra-Orthodox Jews were “infiltrating” their town…
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News What Is An Eruv?
It’s a fence, but it doesn’t exist six days out of the week. It’s a symbolic extension of the home, but not an extension of private property. It’s an ingenious legal loophole, but it’s been Jewish law for 1,500 years. It’s not a riddle, it’s an eruv: a boundary used by Orthodox Jews to expand…
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Fast Forward For Hasidic Jews, A Kosher, Internet-Free GPS Tool
A new GPS device for navigation has been designed specifically for Hasidic Jews who might otherwise be averse to using smartphones. Some have taken to calling the kosher, rabbi-approved device “the Ark” — because, apparently, it looks something like the ark of a Torah. A blog post on Tablet featured the new device, which can’t…
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Fast Forward Hasidic Neighborhood In Brooklyn Has Lead Levels Three Times Worse Than Flint
A Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn — one that has New York City’s highest concentration of children — has lead poisoning levels three times worse than Flint, Michigan. Williamsburg has seen thousands of cases of lead poisoning since 2005, Reuters reported “When I saw the numbers I freaked out,” said Rabbi David Niederman, leader of the…
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Opinion Inside The Satmar Plan To Win Independence For Kiryas Joel
Once again, Kiryas Joel is in the news. The latest is that the Town of Monroe had voted overwhelmingly to agree to the secession of the Satmar enclave, which will form a new all-Hasidic town of Palm Tree. On the face of it, this seems like a bold new phase in the political history of…
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Fast Forward Why neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US
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Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite.
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Opinion Just about every interpretation of Trump’s narrow election victory is wrong
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News Texas schools want to add Queen Esther to the curriculum. Here’s why Jews (and many Christians) are opposed.
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Chabad rabbi killed in United Arab Emirates; Israel denounces ‘despicable antisemitic act’
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Fast Forward Rep. Ritchie Torres, outspoken pro-Israel advocate, is dropping hints that he could run for NY governor
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Fast Forward Ursula Haverbeck, infamous German Holocaust denier known as ‘Nazi grandma,’ dies at 96
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Fast Forward A Jewish museum in Tulsa held a funeral for remains of Holocaust victims it kept for years
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