While Hasidic Jews might enjoy some alcohol with their rebbe at a Friday night tish, said alcohol would never have been produced by a female descendant of a prominent Hasidic rabbinic dynasty. Until now. Gitty Halberstam isn’t what you picture when a Hasidic woman or “bootlegger” (what she sarcastically calls herself) comes to mind. But […]

Dr. Nechumi Yaffe grew up in a “rebbish” Hasidic family. She is the first woman raised Hasidic in Israel to receive a PhD, and the first woman from Israel’s Hasidic community to achieve a post-doctoral position. After earning a PhD in political science from Hebrew University, she is now a research fellow with the Princeton […]

Last month, Orthodox Jewish All Star, the Honorable Judge Ruchie Freier was on her way home from Hungary with her family. It was a route she is familiar with as she travels to Kerestir, Hungary every year to pray by the grave of Reb Shayala of Kerestir on his yahrzeit, a practice that is common […]

While getting my degree in Education, I took a social studies course where we learned about the concept of historical perspective. We often bring a “presentist” approach to our understanding of the past, using our current values and beliefs to judge people. We forget that they lived in different eras, faced different dilemmas, and had […]

Although Jews are known for their humor, most people assume that Hasidim don’t have a funny bone in their body. This assumption isn’t without cause: Hasidic Jews generally don’t smile in public. Enter Yoely Lebovits, Satmar Hasid, and the first boy in his community to be named after the rebbe. (News of the Satmar rebbe’s […]