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Life Sarah Silverman Ends ‘Are Women Funny?’ Debate
“Okay, last night I was visited by Jesus Christ, like the Jesus Christ. And he told me he was really bummed by all these people who use my name for intolerance and oppression.” And so begins Sarah Silverman’s latest viral video, in which Christ comes to Sarah’s living room to tell her that she has…
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Breaking News Women of the Wall Nearing Agreement With Israeli Government After Months of Negotiations
Women of the Wall is close to approving an agreement with the Israeli government to move the group’s monthly prayer service to a new egalitarian area. The report Monday in Haaretz was corroborated on the organization’s Facebook page. The agreement comes after months of negotiations between the organization and an Israeli government committee. In October,…
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Opinion The Benefits of a Woman’s Place
It’s probably because I’m male — and Haredi, or “ultra-Orthodox,” to boot — that, much as I try, I find it hard to relate to Jewish women who feel religiously unfulfilled unless they can lead services, read from the Torah or otherwise take up public roles in synagogue life. But there’s another reason, too: I…
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Israel News Orthodox Growth Tests Multiculturalism in Flashpoint Beit Shemesh
Beit Shemesh: A pessimist could call this city a vision of Israel’s future. The ultra-Orthodox represent, by far, the fastest-growing demographic in the Jewish state, and government statisticians expect their numbers to increase by anywhere up to 700% in the next half-century. Nobody knows what the full consequences will be if there is such rapid…
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News High School Tefillin Debate Just Tip of Iceberg for Orthodox Jewish Women
(JTA) — The announcement this week that SAR, a modern Orthodox high school in New York, is allowing girls to lay tefillin is helping expose an increasingly sharp fault line within Orthodoxy. For decades, it has been difficult to sort out the precise dividing lines between the varieties of Orthodoxy — ultra, haredi, centrist, modern,…
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Opinion Why Women Can — And Must — Lay Tefillin
A woman prays wearing tefillin in Jerusalem/Getty Images Must, should, or can observant Jewish women wrap tefillin, or not? This well-worn question was recently revived thanks to the two Modern Orthodox high schools in New York — SAR and Ramaz — that have tepidly embraced female students who wish to wrap tefillin publicly in their…
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Opinion My Fight To Lay Tefillin At an Orthodox School
A young woman prays wearing tefillin on April 11, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel. / Getty Images On December 8, 2013, SAR High School principal Rabbi Naphtali Harcsztark permitted students Ronit Morris and Yael Marans to lay tefillin in the school’s daily women’s prayer group, allowing them to do so within the school building. While this…
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Culture How Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’ Rescued My American Dream
I discovered “Girls” when it was well into the second season. I had lived in New York for several months to attend the Columbia University School of Journalism. The initial excitement of being in the City That Never Sleeps had waned. I had gotten used to discovering that almost every other person I met was…
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News Dutch Jews grapple with ‘weaponization’ of their fear following attack on Israelis
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News What a Secretary of State Marco Rubio would mean for American Jews and Israel
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Opinion Almost all voting groups shifted toward Trump, except American Jews. Why?
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Fast Forward Trump AG nominee Matt Gaetz has left a trail of antisemitic comments
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Opinion Like our patriarch Abraham, American Jews face 10 post-election tests of our values
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Fast Forward Trump taps RFK Jr., whose anti-vaccine activism has included antisemitic comments, to lead Dept. of Health and Human Services
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Fast Forward A Ben & Jerry’s battle over Israel, long frozen, thaws anew amid Gaza war
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News What a Trump second presidency will mean for school prayer, campus antisemitism and other education issues Jews care — and worry — about
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