Not your average Brooklyn hipster: Meet Meir Kalmanson

By Samara Abramson May 2, 2016

  At first glance, you might think Meir Kalmanson is just another 25-year-old hipster filmmaker from Brooklyn. But if you take a closer look, you’ll find that he’s far from typical. Kalmanson was born into the Chabad Lubavitch movement, which is a sect of ultra-Orthodox Hasidism — and the largest and fastest-growing Jewish organization in…

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Why progressive Jews should be outraged about Hasidic schools

By Amram Altzman April 12, 2016

When news broke back in September of the systematic and egregious lack of regulation of secular studies curricula in Hasidic and Haredi schools, there was little outcry from the rest of the Jewish community over the fact that a large segment of our population — already growing up cut off from the rest of the world…

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Hasidic Lady Rock? Heck Yes.

By H. B. Rubin October 26, 2012

There are few things that I love more than Obama’s Horses and Bayonets line in last night’s debate. One of those things are the cheese quesadillas that my roommate makes almost nightly as a College-Is-Fucking-Stressful snack. The other is Bulletproof Stockings. No no, I’m not referring to a new military-chic phenomena of stockings that can shield…

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Oprah and Chabad; Jesus for Hanukkah; and more. [Required Reading]

By John Propper February 10, 2012

  Oprah goes Hasid [Chabad] Visiting Hasidic communities in Brooklyn for an upcoming episode in her latest program, Oprah sat down for a special interview with Chabad Rabbi Motti Seligson. Oprah discussed misconceptions about the role of women in Orthodox Judaism, the importance of family, and living a life of meaning. When asked by Seligson…

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