The U.S. State Department is advising visitors to Jerusalem to dress modestly when visiting certain neighborhoods, or to avoid the areas entirely, in hopes of not provoking local sensitivities. The State Department guidance did not specify which neighborhoods are considered problematic, or what, exactly, constitutes “modest” attire. Read More »

What in the world has gotten into Jeffrey Chodorow?” muttered one of the food snobs at my table as he took a perfectly brined pickle from the exceptional “delicatessen” board at the rashly conceived, surprisingly accomplished “modern Jewish-American” restaurant Kutcher’s Tribeca and crunched it happily between his teeth. Read More »

Deborah Feldman’s memoir, “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots,” begins with Feldman describing her father, a mentally disabled Hasid employed by pitying community members to preform simple tasks, like picking up people from the airport. Sometimes he takes along 5-year-old Deborah. Read More »

One day in 1976, a student entered our classroom at Beit Yaakov Seminar in Tel Aviv, weeping passionately. She informed us that the revered Gerer rebbe – the so-called Beis Yisroel – Rabbi Israel Alter, had died. Read More »

In the four times Rosa Kichikova has given birth, she never mistook the hospital for a hotel. But that almost happened the fifth time, when the Flushing mother last week became the first woman to deliver a baby at the new Katz Women’s Hospital in New Hyde Park. Little Avital Kichikova was brought into the world at 10: 24 p.m. Jan. Read More »

An 18-year-old New Square man who worked for the Hasidic Jewish community’s rabbinical leader is scheduled for trial next week on a charge of attempted murder stemming from accusations that he set fire to a fellow village resident who had defied the edicts of the community’s spiritual leader. Read More »

Once again, Ramapo proves that, when it comes to land use, it is easier to seek forgiveness than ask permission, even if it takes almost two decades. Read More »

After coming under fierce criticism from Hillcrest firefighters, the mayor today will begin the legal process to shut down a Route 306 religious school that continues teaching children amid what firefighters consider unsafe conditions. Read More »

Why do fundamentalists always end up wrapping women in shmattes?I ask because, as we’ve seen in Israel’s Beit Shemesh recently, ultra-uber-Orthodox men have been spitting on less-ultra-but-still-Orthodox girls as young as age 8 for wearing clothes that aren’t “modest” enough. Read More »

Cherkassy, January 30, Interfax – Hasids who come to Uman, Cherkassy region of Ukraine, to visit the grave of their spiritual leader tsadik Nahman every year can now use the building of a former synagogue, Sergey Tulub, the head of the Cherkassy Region’s administration, said. Read More »

Jewish congregants arrived at the Algriva synagogue in Old Ramle on Saturday morning to find fire fighters trying to put out a blaze that had erupted inside their house of worship.By the time the fire was subdued a Torah scroll, a pair of tefillin [phylacteries – ed], the library of holy books, and seating inside had been ravaged by the flames. Read More »

A 53-year-old man, Noah Foxman, was left to die on a Brooklyn street after two motorists plowed into him in a grisly hit-and-run Thursday night, police sources and witnesses said.A white van first hit the man, clipping him while he was in the crosswalk at Coney Island Ave. and Avenue K in Midwood, witnesses said. Read More »

Friday afternoon can be a stressful time in Stamford Hill, a working class neighborhood in northern London.The ultra orthodox Jews, are in a rush to buy challah, rugalach and other Jewish baked goods so they can take it easy after sunset, when the Sabbath starts. Read More »

The cost of an average wedding in Israel may reach some NIS 100,000 (about $26,750) – a sum not every family can afford, especially with the recent social protest. The ultra-Orthodox sector has found a way to cut these expenses. Read More »

The yuppie goyim are TAKING OVER Crown Heights, turning the once idyllic neighborhood into a wicked G-dless hellhole known among interlopers as “ProCro,” a veritable Sodom where they party half-naked on rooftops and corrupt the area youth! So says Read More »

It was revealed, this week, that the security forces of Azerbaijan arrested three Azerbi citizens on suspicion of planning to attack Rabbi Shneor Segal of the Chabad Lubavitch hasidic movement and Rabbi Mati Lewis, principal of the Or Avner school in Baku. Read More »

Head of the Israel Defense Forces’ personnel directorate Major-General Orna Barbibai said on Monday that the IDF should enlist every Israel “into meaningful service. Read More »

Amsterdam’s chief rabbi who was suspended last week because of his controversial views on homosexuality believes his life would be in danger if he came to the Netherlands, the NRC reports on Sunday.Aryeh Ralbag told the paper: ‘I have strong indications that my wife and I would not be sure of our lives if we came to the Netherlands now. Read More »

A drive through this picturesque central New Jersey “shore” town (pop. 750) leaves many with a puzzling thought: How can these people afford such grandeur? The latest fallout from Operation Bid Rig (OBR), a joint Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and U.S. Read More »

A bridge built illegally at the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was demolished without incident on Thursday.Some 100 policemen came to guard the operation, fearing violent ultra-Orthodox protests, but no demonstrators showed up and the demolition was completed in an hour. Read More »