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Life First Ultra-Orthodox Sex-Segregated Playground Opens
The reportedly first sex-segregated public playground in the country has been opened in Kiryas Joel, the ultra-Orthodox enclave in Monroe, NY. According to YourJewishNews.com, Kiryas Joel’s Satmar Hasidic community has built on 283 acres on the city’s outskirts a playground that completely separates boys from girls. More accurately, the space is divided into four areas:…
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Life Trailblazing Woman Joins Orthodox Montreal Shul
Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Montreal’s largest and oldest Ashkenazi synagogue, has become the first Canadian congregation to hire a graduate of Yeshivat Maharat, the Bronx yeshiva that ordains women. Rachel Kohl Finegold, 32, is one of three graduates of the yeshiva’s inaugural class. She will be moving with her family from Chicago to Montreal, where she…
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Life Jewish Feminist Shulamith Firestone’s Lessons
A young woman from a strict Orthodox family clashes with her father, leaves home and finds a home of sorts in the “Movement” — first the New Left of the 1960s, then the explosion of radical feminism out of that group’s fed-up female contingent. Her forward-thinking writing and organizing electrifies this new “wave” of feminism,…
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Life Coming Out of the Child-Free Closet
In February 1997, Ellen Jaffe Gill’ s essay on not wanting to have children, was published in Moment Magazine. In the piece, Jaffe Gill (then McClain) discussed how her decision not to have children did not prevent her from engaging fully in Jewish life. As a writer, she was in fact transmitting the covenant on…
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Life Aly Goes for Gold on ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Dancing with the Stars loves their theme weeks, and this week didn’t escape unscathed. The contestants were asked to do dances that tied in with “The Best Year of My Life.” While that’s actually a pretty decent theme for a dance, the celebrities still have to work within the constraints of the show; if you’re…
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Life Wedding Proposals Go Viral
Last week, I wrote a piece for TODAY.com about a man in Chicago named Jason Methner, whose incredibly elaborate proposal to his now-fiancee involved an original kids’ book and some collusion from the Chicago Public Library. While most of the comments on the article were positive, quite a few people were unhappy. However, it wasn’t…
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Breaking News National Council of Jewish Women Calls on Israel To Sanction Civil Marriage and Divorce
The National Council of Jewish Women called on the Jewish state to create a system of civil marriage and divorce in what was seen as a landmark move. “The monopoly of authority given to Orthodox rabbinical courts in Israel regarding issues of personal status, particularly marriage, weakens rather than strengthens the state itself by causing…
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Opinion The Tipping Point?
For all the excitement and drama of the new parties and fresh faces in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, one thing has stayed depressingly constant: The paltry number of women in the Israeli cabinet. True, the count increased by one — from three in the last government, to four. And technically, the percentage…
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