The Haredi Woman Managing Israel-Diaspora Affairs & Other Orthodox Jews in the News

NFL Quarterback Kirk Cousins Wishes a ‘Mazel Tov’ and Cites Torah in Message to Jewish Students
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins scored a touchdown with his congratulatory message to the graduates of a Jewish student program. Cousins wished the graduates of the Jewish Student Union, a program of the Orthodox Union’s youth group NCSY, a “mazel tov” on Monday in a video address and mentioned the Torah several times.

In Alt-History Israeli Miniseries ‘Autonomies,’ Secular and Religious Worlds Clash
Around the time you discovered “Shtisel,” one of its writers’ more recent projects was airing in Israel, portraying the story of two families battling over a child in an alternate version of a modern-day Jewish state. The Israel portrayed in Yehonatan Indursky’s “Autonomies,” is separated — by a wall — into two entities: an ultra-Orthodox autonomy and a secular state, with Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as their respective capitals.

Meet Omer Yankelevich, the Orthodox Woman Tasked With Mending the Frayed Ties Between Israel and the Diaspora
Omer Yankelevich is the new minister of Diaspora affairs in Israel, in charge of managing the Jewish state’s relations with Jewish communities abroad. Her role is complicated by the fact that she is Haredi Orthodox — part of a community that is at the heart of some of the issues putting a wedge between Israel and the Diaspora. She’s also the first Haredi woman to hold a Cabinet position in Israeli government and is taking criticism for that – many in her community say her participation in politics is scandalous.

Kosher Response Aims to Aid Families in Need and Help Local Businesses
As NY continues to be one of the heaviest hit areas of the world by the coronavirus outbreak, the Kosher Response project, which stepped up to provide healthcare workers, police and other “front line heroes” with kosher food packages as they fight the COVID-19 outbreak, has expanded its mission to include families in need. The project was started by Gabriel Boxer, popularly known as the “Kosher Guru” on social media among kosher foodies. Kosher Response began with the aim to “show gratitude and perform random acts of kindness by delivering food packages to our heroes on the front lines.”

Young Hasidic Jews Protest in Support of Black Neighbors, Challenging History of Racial Tensions
On a recent Sunday, about 200 young Hasidic women and men with wide-brimmed black hats and free-flowing beards parked their baby strollers along the tree-lined boulevards of Crown Heights in Brooklyn. “The opposite of love is not hate. It’s indifference,” one sign read, quoting Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace laureate Elie ­Wiesel. The young families chanted “Black lives matter!” and “Jews for justice!” as they marched through the diverse neighborhood, once home to riots that broke out over tensions between black and Hasidic residents.

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