Netflix’s ‘Shtisel’ Is Binge-Worthy TV on a Strict Form of Judaism What makes the Israeli series “Shtisel,” such groundbreaking television is that the characters are the black-hatted, side-curled men and bewigged women of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, a group that is known in Hebrew by the umbrella term Haredim and includes Hasidim. It is an insular subculture […]

Rains Unearth Rare Bar Kochba-era Coin Hailing ‘Freedom of Israel’ An Israeli tour guide stumbled across a rare 1,900-year-old coin from the time of the Bar Kochba revolt unearthed by recent rains, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority said Monday. Tour guide Maayan Shalom was walking near the Givat Gad nature reserve on a training […]

Amid a Measles Outbreak, an Ultra-Orthodox Nurse Fights Vaccination Fears in Her Community Blima Marcus is an oncology nurse and a member of the ultra-Orthodox community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, where the incidence of measles has risen sharply since last fall, as it has in similar enclaves in the New York area. In mid-November, Marcus […]

Meet the Freshman Class of the Maryland General Assembly The freshman class of Maryland’s General Assembly includes the legislature’s largest group of female lawmakers to ever serve in the state house, including Dalya Attar (D-Baltimore City): She is a Baltimore prosecutor and an Orthodox Jew. Haredi Woman Running in Labor Aims for Revolution When one […]

An Ultra-Orthodox Jew in Pyongyang Meir Alfasi has added 40 more countries to his list since his journeys across the globe were last documented by Ynet. But this one is a record even for him. The ultra-Orthodox photographer, also known as Chabad’s “emissary at large,” made it into North Korea, one of the most closed-off […]