Women and Judaism

Why did the women bring musical instruments out of Egypt? In her first Lehrhaus article, musicologist Rebecca Cypess draws a fascinating historical analogy between biblical and African-American slavery to shed light on the Exodus in Jewish tradition.

Rabbi Leonard Matanky reflects on Rabbi Saul Berman's account of the Rav's 1977 Stern College Talmud shiur and Orthodox Judaism's & slippery slope complex.

Joshua Yuter considers rabbinic conceptions of justice in the age of #metoo.

Ezra Schwartz The recently published account of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s inaugural shiur at Stern College has rightfully generated much conversation about women and Gemara study. In light of this appropriate benchmark of forty years,...

The new book Reclaiming Dignity is taking the Anglo Jewish world by storm. Why? Emmanuel Bloch, who wrote his dissertation on the subject of tzeniut, argues that the work capitalizes on and extends a new, revolutionary halakhic and conceptual framework for tzeniut that has emerged only in recent years - one that offers a lens to the “soul of contemporary Jewish Orthodoxy.”

Leah Sarna contributes to the Lehrhaus Symposium on the recent OU statement regarding female clergy.

Miriam Gedwiser Sometimes, returning to a familiar text uncovers something new. In this essay, I hope to reexamine the story of the Oven of Akhnai...

Jack Bieler argues that the most important element of advancing women's Torah study is the ability to choose.

Zev Eleff and Ari Lamm cap off the Lehrhaus Symposium on the OU statement.

Last year at this time, when the pandemic brought tremendous upheaval to Jewish communal institutions the mikveh remained open for use. In this expansive piece, Mijal Bitton and Elana Stein Hain examine the communal response to mikveh during COVID-19, explore the experiences of women who chose to use--or not use--the mikveh during this time, and offer constructive recommendations for the future.