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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Opinion Orthodox Belief in God and Faith Is Spreading — Got a Problem With That?
Reading two recent breathless headlines in the Forward, it would seem that Judaism, at least as practiced in America, is somehow in mortal danger of being co-opted and radically changed by Orthodox Jewry. An article by Nathan Guttman boldly declares that the “Pew Study Finds Orthodox Similar to Evangelical Christians — Not Other Jews.” To…
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Opinion When Orthodox and Evangelicals Align — and What It Means for Everyone Else
Sixty years ago, a Jewish intellectual named Will Herberg published a book that jolted the way Americans thought about their religious landscape. The title of his book, if not his musty thesis, could describe a new American religious alignment that presents serious challenges for progressive Jews and Judaism today. “Protestant-Catholic-Jew: An Essay in American Religious…
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News Pew Study Finds Orthodox Similar to Evangelical Christians — Not Other Jews
Wearing black hats or donning small yarmulkes, Orthodox Jews represent a distinct subgroup within the Jewish community — more observant, more conservative and more insular. But the revelation in a report released today by the Pew Research Center is that Orthodox Jews vote, believe, worship, act and raise their children more like white evangelical Protestants…
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Breaking News First Ultra-Orthodox Woman Admitted to El Al Pilot Training
Israel’s national airline, El Al, accepted a haredi Orthodox woman into its pilot training program. Identified in Israeli media only by her first name, Nechama, the new recruit is a mother of three children in her early 30s from a town near Jerusalem, the news site www.ch10.co.il reported on Wednesday. Nechama, who will be El…
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Israel News Orthodox Conversion Rebels Challenge Rabbinate on Marriage
In the latest challenge to Israel’s supreme religious authority, several Orthodox rabbis have begun to perform weddings for converts who are not recognized by the Chief Rabbinate. In recent months, Haaretz has learned, these rabbis officiated at three such weddings involving Israelis converted by a new alternative rabbinical court. Their names cannot be published, however,…
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Breaking News Chief Rabbi Declares War on Orthodox Conversion Rebels
Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi accused the founders of a private conversion court of “fighting against the Torah.” David Lau made the allegation Thursday night at the inaugural event of B’Noam, a lobby group devoted to defending the policies of Israel’s chief rabbinate and its religious establishment, in reference to the announcement last week of several…
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Breaking News Will Rebel Rabbis’ Conversion Court Spark Orthodox Civil War?
Six young people were converted to Judaism by a rebel religious court on Monday. The small group of Orthodox rabbis who sat on the beit din and supported the act, led by rabbis David Stav and Nahum Rabinowitz, are all veteran pulpit rabbis and the heads of respected yeshivas. Their defiance of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate…
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Breaking News Orthodox Shul Opens Near Brazil’s Iconic Ipanema Beach
An Orthodox synagogue was opened officially a few blocks from the iconic Ipanema Beach in Brazil. Some 1,200 people attended Sunday’s inauguration of the four-story, 440-seat synagogue in Rio de Janeiro named for Edmond Safra, the late Brazilian Jewish billionaire and philanthropist whose foundation funded much of the project. The 20,000-square foot building, which replaces…
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