Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Orthodox Judaism, which aims for a stricter observance of halachic law than Conservative or Reform Judaism. It includes Modern Orthodox Judaism, as well as Haredi (sometimes called ultra-Orthodox) Judaism,…
Orthodox Judaism
The Latest
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Fast Forward Kiryas Joel Secedes From Municipality And Renames Itself ‘Palm Tree’
(JTA) — The Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel in New York became what is said to be the first official haredi Orthodox town in the United States. Kiryas Joel on Jan.1 became the town of Palm Tree when it officially split from the Town of Monroe located in New York’s Orange County, the Times Herald-Record…
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Community An Outspoken Orthodox Rabbi Is Breaking The Rabbinate’s Monopoly On Marriage
A version of this article originally appeared in Plus61J, an Australian-Jewish publication. Israelis love complaining about the overbearing power of the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate. Few, however, have done more to challenge the Rabbinate’s monopoly over Jewish life choices than Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz of Jerusalem. After completing his struggle to introduce alternative kosher certificates to restaurants…
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News Is A String Of Attacks Against Brooklyn Jews Really About Anti-Semitism?
Mindel Zaetz’s husband was chased down the street last week by a group of men while he was on his way home from work, just off of Eastern Parkway, the broad thoroughfare that runs through the middle of Crown Heights, in Brooklyn. “He came home really spooked,” said Zaetz, 29, as she was on her…
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Community NYC Is Cracking Down On Yeshivas — And The Satmar Rebbe Has Declared War
For years now, the Hasidic community has feigned compliance with New York State Education laws. While Hasidic yeshivot don’t typically provide much secular education at all, they have at least claimed that they were complying with the law. However, a recent speech by the Satmar Rebbe Aron Teitelbaum disabuses once and for all the notion…
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Community For Some Jews, Israel Has Replaced God
A prominent pulpit rabbi in Florida once got into a dispute with an elderly member who adamantly insisted on fasting on Yom Kippur, despite his doctor’s warnings that doing so could have fatal consequences. After the argument escalated, Rabbi Zev Leff told the gentleman that if he fasted on Yom Kippur, he would not be…
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Fast Forward WATCH: Hasidic Man Punched In Brooklyn, Perpetrator Yells ‘Blah!’
A Hasidic man was punched in the head from behind on Saturday in Brooklyn, NBC New York reported. Video shows a Hispanic man racing up to a small group of people standing on the sidewalk in the Williamsburg neighborhood. He punched the 32-year-old victim and reportedly yelled “Blah!” before running away. The victim was wearing…
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Opinion No, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Did Not Sin Against The Memory Of The Holocaust
Regular comparisons of today’s persecutions to the Holocaust rightly rankle those of us who lost family as a result of the Nazi attempt to annihilate European Jewry. Whether it’s Louis Farrakhan’s assertion that blacks have suffered a “holocaust 100 times worse” than what the Jews faced during World War II, or PETA’s impressively tone-deaf “Holocaust…
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Opinion Stop Taking Out Your Liberal Anger On The Orthodox
In the aftermath of the Pittsburgh massacre, Jews all over the world sought to make sense of the horror that was the single greatest act of violence targeting Jews in the history of the United States of America. For some people, that meant expressions of solidarity. For some it meant turning to religion, engaging in…
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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.
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Fast Forward Three arrested in murder of rabbi in United Arab Emirates; Israel denounces ‘despicable antisemitic act’
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News Trump promised peace in the Middle East. Will his 2020 plan be the blueprint?
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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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