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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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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Fast Forward Warring Brooklyn Candidates Agree On One Thing: No Yeshiva Reform
Amid a blistering City Council campaign in the Orthodox-dominated neighborhood of Boro Park, two warring candidates have found a rare point of agreement: Both dislike the advocates seeking to improve secular education at Hasidic Yeshivas. “I don’t want any outside group, I’m not going to give them airtime by mentioning their name, but they are…
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Fast Forward Hasidic Student Almost Misses His Wedding Over British Immigration Snafu
(JTA) — British immigration officers detained for three days a haredi Orthodox citizen of Israel and the United States who arrived in the United Kingdom to marry a citizen of that country. Yosef Goldenberg of Los Angeles, who is studying in Israel, arrived Thursday at London’s Heathrow Airport carrying his American passport en route to his wedding Monday in…
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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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Life What Makes The Hasidic Community Choose Tribe Over Offspring?
About 10 years ago, right around the time the tectonic plates beneath my structured world began to shift, eventually destroying my entire existence as I knew it, there was a campaign in my hometown of Kiryas Joel and beyond to “save the neshama of a young girl.” The young girl, a toddler at the time,…
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Life I Hated Halloween. Until I Became Orthodox.
Growing up in a secular family, I spent many Halloweens of my youth dressed as a Jack-O-Lantern. But that doesn’t mean I liked the holiday. I actually hated how showy people got with single-use costumes, the obsession with spooky things, and the overall lack of meaning in the celebrations. And then, of course, there were…
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Opinion How Knesset Push Will Actually Help Chained Women Worldwide
Israeli lawmakers are considering a law that would help Orthodox women across the world. Jewish law does not permit a woman to divorce her husband without his consent, and in Israel and abroad, a number of women who wish to leave their husbands are unable to do so. These women are known as agunoth –…
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