Jofa Recent Media

By Michael J. HarrisVallentine Mitchell, 2016, $36.94By Roselyn Bell What is Modern Orthodoxy? Michael J. Harris, a rabbi serving the Hampstead Synagogue in London as well as an academic with ...

By Yehudit Robinson I didn’t expect to say Kaddish with any regularity. When my father, Morris Robinson, died in late January 2020, I intended to recite only the three Kaddishes ...

By Michal S. RaucherIndiana University Press, 2020, $24.Reviewed by Roselyn Bell If you are tired of Ḥaredi women being portrayed as oppressed, uneducated, and subservient to their husbands, Michal Raucher’s ...

By Rabbi Daniel Sperber, Afterword by Rabbanit Dr. Michal TikochinskyMaharat/Urim Publishers, 2020, $27.95Review by Debbie WeissmanIn the Bible, there are many important female figures—although many fewer than the male figures—occupying ...

By Noam StadlanThe 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 ...

By Nancy SinkoffWayne State University Press, 2020, $34.99Review by Roselyn BellLucy Dawidowicz was not a feminist, nor was she Orthodox, yet much in her life experience and in her intellectual ...

It’s Both Public and Private By Pam Scheininger The Call for Articles for this edition of the JOFA Journal began with this hook: “Our awareness of our human capacity for ...

In Shifra’s ArmsJewish Unplanned Pregnancy Serviceswww.jewishpregnancyhelp.orgHelpline: 888-360-5872Textline: 646-632-8547 JScreenSaliva-based screening for genetic diseases common among people of Jewish ancestryBased at Emory University’s Department of Human Geneticswww.jscreen.org IWSTHAB“I Was Supposed to ...

By Hillary Kener RegelmanOne of the first mitzvot in the Torah is to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). In light of modern medicine, many rabbis today interpret the verse to ...

By Michal Raucher When people learn that I have conducted research on reproduction among ḥִaredi (ultra-Orthodox) women in Jerusalem, their first questions usually are: “Do they use birth control?” “Do ...

By Plonit Almonit“I hope you don’t resent.…”That’s what my boss said to me in the course of the discussion in which I was fired while still new on the job. ...

By Gail KatzThe 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 ...

High School Leadership Development Program On June 29, JOFA launched its first online High School Leadership Development Program. Over the course of this virtual three-week program, 26 young women from ...

By Elana FrankI have three rambunctious and adorable boys whom I love more than life itself. All were born via the miracle of in vitro fertilization (IVF), or, as my ...

By Daphne Lazar PricePublishing this issue of the JOFA Journal, which focuses on women’s health and reproductive issues, might seem out of touch amid a global pandemic, heightened racial tension, ...