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 Man Who Snatched Orthodox Women’s Wigs Arrested In California
A man suspected of pulling wigs off the heads of Orthodox Jewish women in North Hollywood, California, was arrested Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported. Police believe the women were targeted because they’re Jewish. The man was not immediately identified. He is accused of three instances of battery, the Times reported. An 80-year-old woman said…
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Life Among Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox, ‘Civics’ Takes On A Very Different Meaning
“We don’t discuss politics, gossip or slander,” declared the billboard, located on a busy thoroughfare in the ultra-orthodox suburb of Ramat Beit Shemesh. “We should distance ourselves from everything having to do with the elections as if from fire,” one cartoon boy on the billboard was portrayed saying. “My father told me that he also…
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Fast Forward Orthodox Rabbi: Don’t Pray For Pittsburgh Victims Because They Were Conservative Jews
Updated 10:00 p.m. An Orthodox rabbi said that Jews should not pray for the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre because they were killed while praying in a Conservative synagogue. “Somebody came over to me and told me today that he got an email that people should go gather someplace here in town to give…
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Life Where Are The Orthodox, After Pittsburgh? We’re Right Here, Mourning With You.
I have been asked, repeatedly, by non-Orthodox Jews about the “Orthodox response to Pittsburgh.” What a strange question. After all, the American Orthodox Jewish community has undoubtedly been plunged into mourning over the Pittsburgh shooting victims. Still, I sense a frustration here, among progressives seeking emotional responses from the Orthodox — and I want to…
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News Women Victims Of Pittsburgh Bloodbath Get Erased By Hasidic Newspaper
A Hasidic newspaper left faces of the female victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre out of a front page spread on the tragedy. On the cover of its November 2 edition, the weekly Yiddish-language tabloid Di Tzeitung ran photos of the eight men slaughtered last Saturday at Tree of Life congregation in Pittsburgh. Underneath, in…
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Life How To Talk To The Sex Abuse Survivor Who’s Probably Sitting At Your Shabbat Table
For several years, while earning my doctorate in clinical psychology, specializing in traumatic stress, I felt like I lived a double life. My weekdays were filled with stories of trauma — I conducted countless evaluations of youth who had survived physical or sexual abuse, completed court-ordered risk assessments of minors who had displayed problematic sexual…
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Fast Forward Israel Chief Rabbi Won’t Call Pittsburgh Shooting Site ‘Synagogue’ — Because It’s Not Orthodox
Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi came under fire on Sunday for refusing to acknowledge in a newspaper interview that the massacre in Pittsburgh was carried out in a synagogue. The country’s ultra-Orthodox newspapers, in reporting on the event, have also refused to acknowledge that it took place in a Jewish house of prayer because Tree of…
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Letters Wearing Tefillin Is Serious — And Only Those Properly Prepared Should Don Them
There is nothing more admirable in this world than the desire to get close to God. It is an innate part of every soul to want to return to the spiritual bliss found in the Divine Presence. Luckily, that Presence also wants to draw us close. That’s why Hashem bestowed on humanity both the Written…
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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 This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
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Fast Forward Meet Lev Kreitman, who brought down Tel Aviv shooter and survived Nova music festival on Oct. 7
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