What’s 93Queen? It’s the internal ambulance code that the Fire Department of the City of New York assigned to Ezras Nashim, the Big Apple’s first all-volunteer female ambulance service. It’s also the name of a documentary describing how that service came to be. 93Queen is the first feature film by director/cinematographer Paula Eiselt, who obtained
93Queen: Documenting Change within a Hasidic Community Read More »
Harassment: An Assault of Human Dignity Following the headlines of the #MeToo movement, one might think that the horrors of sexual harassment had just been discovered. Remarkably, though, already in the second century ce, Rabbi Akiva taught some of the basic lessons of the movement. A close reading of a single mishnah can help us
#MeToo and Sexual Harrassment: A Familiar Mishnah through a New Lens Read More »
Since the early 2000s, employment of ultra-Orthodox women in Israel has continuously been on the rise and has now reached 80 percent—or 5 percent higher than the general rate of women’s employment. What caused such a radical female rush to the workforce? The motive was dire necessity. Since 2003, hareidi families have been confronted with
Hareidiyot in Israel: Ultra-Orthodox Women in the Workplace Read More »
How does anyone choose a career path? Family precedents, inspiration from a teacher or mentor, a chosen course of study, or even an opportunity that opens new doors—any of these can be decisive. At the age of sixteen, for no discernible reason, I decided I wanted to be an architect. I loved art, but ever
Architecture as a Profession for a Nice Jewish Girl Read More »
As a lawyer and professor of business law, I have found that women bring their own brand of values to an employment setting. (Of we do!) In fact, it was due to my prior experience in the workplace that I cultivated the value-added skill of navigating halakhic sources to support women’s leadership roles within Orthodoxy.
The Values and Strengths that Orthodox Jewish Women Bring to the Workplace Read More »
For more than a year, we have seen frequent exposés of senior professionals who have harassed or assaulted subordinates. The current wave of actions addressing this workplace misbehavior is overdue and critical for supporting healthy work environments. But I believe that, for most people, the types of misbehaviors experienced at work are less severe than
Gender and Communication in the Workplace Read More »
“Brava, Brava Jewish Women,” exclaimed the Jewish Daily Forward headline on May 15, 1902, applauding the “[t]housands and thousands of balaboostas rebelling against the meat fraud” of 1902.1 Kosher meat wholesalers, decried as “robber barons” by the indignant housewives of the Lower East Side, had hiked up the prices of kosher meat from 12 to
The Kosher Meat Strike that Launched New York City’s Labor Movement Read More »
Yetzi’at tzaddik min hamakom oseh roshem (the departure of a holy, righteous person leaves a real impact)—Rashi, Gen. 28:10. Few people would have described Marcel Lindenbaum in his lifetime as a tzaddik. Marcel exuded joie de vivre, loved the finer things in life, possessed an adventurous spirit. He was a captain of his sailboat, horseback
A Tribute to Marcel Lindenbaum, z”l Read More »
Dear friends, I am excited to take on the role of executive director of JOFA and to work with a dedicated board of directors, an incredible professional team, and passionate lay leaders to advance the work of this vital organization. One of the great blessings of my life is that I have always been surrounded
Message from the Executive Director Read More »
If one wanted to trace the beginnings of formal Jewish education for women in the modern era, one could do no better than to read Naomi Seidman’s Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement. This volume is both a scholarly history of the movement and a translation of many of Schenirer’s writings into English for
Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition Read More »
