Jofa Recent Media

As we Turn Toward Elul,
Let’s Find Our Strengths
by Evonne Marzouk

This coming week is the reading of Parshat Shoftim, the first parsha of the month of Elul. It is a month, of course, associated with teshuva (return) in preparation for ...

agunotjewish divorce

The Agunah Crisis and the Courts:
New Attempt to Solve an Old Problem
By Anna Urowitz-Freudenstein

The complicated details of Jewish divorce are based on only two verses in the Torah (Deut. 24:1-2 – They are in this week’s Torah reading, Parashat Ki Teitzei). Clearly the ...

reproductive justice; reproductive freedom; religious freedom; abortion; reproductive rights

One Year Later: Reflections on the Dobbs Decision and What Remains at Stake
By Daphne Lazar Price

As we near the one year anniversary of the Dobbs decision – which overturned federal constitutional protections of privacy and abortion rights that have stood since the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision – ...

Passover

Why this Passover is like no other

By Daphne Lazar Price, April 9, 2023 Jews must be able to live free of fear, including in Israel, where rockets from Lebanon are antisemitic violence, plain and simple. Read ...

Jofa Makes the “10 to Watch,” by The Slingshot Fund

•The Slingshot Fund has released its 2022 “10 to Watch,” a list of 10 relatively new Jewish nonprofits responding to the current concerns of American Jews in original ways.• This ...

reproductive justice; reproductive freedom; religious freedom; abortion; reproductive rights

What does Halakhah say about abortion?

The discussion of abortion in halakhah begins with the life of the mother. Pikuaḥ nefesh, the obligation to preserve life — in this case, the life of the mother — trumps every other ...

reproductive justice; reproductive freedom; religious freedom; abortion; reproductive rights

The politics of abortion

The typical pro-choice and anti-abortion positions in debate in American society today do not line up well with halakhic views on abortion. Halakhah never frames the issues in terms of individual choice, ...

reproductive justice; reproductive freedom; religious freedom; abortion; reproductive rights

Shaming women who have abortions is not a Jewish ethic

(JTA) — I have long been a keeper of women’s stories, many of which relate to fertility and reproductive choices, experiences generally shrouded in secrecy. While I am honored to ...

American Orthodox rabbis: The complicity of silence

American political lines align Orthodox Jewish groups with Christians when it comes to abortion, taking an approach that contradicts their own rich rabbinic literature

Form Follows Values

By Adam Starr Buildings can speak. Not with words, but with values—the values of their builders and the communities that use them. Thanks to the extreme generosity of our membership, ...

My Bat Mitzvah Lesson

By Alan M. Schwartz Memorial Day 2009 was a milestone in the life of our family. My wife and I had chosen that Monday as the date for our daughter ...

Family Seating at Life-Cycle Events

By Justin Sakofs For most of our married life, my wife and I have been members of minyanim with a mehitzah, and presently we are members of Kol Sasson, the ...

Where Were the Women? The First Ezrat Nashim

By Vivian B. Mann In the fall of 2015, a young girl, viewing the synagogue models in the Yeshiva University Museum in New York City, asked, “But where would I ...

CAPTIONS: MANN. WHERE WERE THE WOMEN?

Figure 1. Cordoba Synagogue, Interior, 1314/5. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Sapieha.Figure 2. Lorca Synagogue, general view of interior, first half of 15th century. After Ramón Avaso Martínez, ed., Lorca: Luces ...

Dear JOFA,

I read every issue of the Journal from cover to cover.I received the Winter2015–2016 issue this week and was stunned to see that it focused on child sexual abuse.I read ...