Leah Goldberg or Lea Goldberg was a prolific Hebrew-language poet, author, playwright, literary translator, illustrater and painter, and comparative literary researcher.
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch, is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups as well as one of the largest Jewish religious organizations in the world. Unlike most Haredi groups, which are self-segregating, Chabad mainly operates in the wider world and it caters to secularized Jews.
Yitzchak Hutner, also known as Isaac Hutner, was an American Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean).
A Rebbe or Admor is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties. The titles of Rebbe and Admor, which used to be a general honor title even before the beginning of the movement, became, over time, almost exclusively identified with its Tzadikim.
Portnoy's Complaint is a 1969 American novel by Philip Roth. Its success turned Roth into a major celebrity, sparking a storm of controversy over its explicit and candid treatment of sexuality, including detailed depictions of masturbation using various props including a piece of liver. The novel tells the humorous monologue of "a lust-ridden, mother-addicted young Jewish bachelor," who confesses to his psychoanalyst in "intimate, shameful detail, and coarse, abusive language."
My Name Is Asher Lev is a novel by Chaim Potok, an American author and rabbi. The book's protagonist is Asher Lev, a Hasidic Jewish boy in New York City. Asher is a loner with artistic inclinations. His art, however, causes conflicts with his family and other members of his community. The book follows Asher's maturity as both an artist and a Jew.
"Hava Nagila" is a Jewish folk song. It is traditionally sung at celebrations, such as weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvas, and other festivities among the Jewish community. Written in 1918, it quickly spread through the Jewish diaspora.
Bee Season is a 2000 novel by Myla Goldberg. It follows a young girl as she attempts to win the national spelling bee, and the repercussions of her success on the other members of her family.
According to halacha, married Jewish women are expected to cover their hair when in the presence of men other than their husband or close family members. Such covering is common practice nowadays among Orthodox Jewish women.
Trembling Before G-d is a 2001 American documentary film about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews trying to reconcile their sexuality with their faith. It was directed by Sandi Simcha DuBowski, an American who wanted to compare Orthodox Jewish attitudes to homosexuality with his own upbringing as a gay Conservative Jew.
Loving Leah is a 2009 American romantic drama television film that aired on CBS as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie on January 25, 2009. The film is directed by Jeff Bleckner and stars Adam Kaufman as a non-observant Jewish bachelor who feels compelled to marry his rabbi brother's widow, Leah, to honor him via the ancient Jewish law of yibbum.
The Chosen is a 1981 American drama film directed by Jeremy Kagan, based on the best-selling book of the same name by Chaim Potok, published in 1967. It stars Robby Benson, Barry Miller, Maximilian Schell and Rod Steiger. At the 1981 Montréal World Film Festival, the film won Grand Prix of the Americas, and Steiger won best actor. Analysis Film Releasing Corp and 20th Century Fox released it in the US in April 1982.
Footsteps is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City that provides educational, vocational, and social support to people who have left or want to leave a Haredi or Hasidic Jewish community in the United States.
Torah Live is a educational Torah organization founded by Rabbi Dan Roth that combines interactive multimedia presentations with live lecturers to teach Jewish law, philosophy, and ethics. Torah Live presents to diverse audiences from Ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to secular Jewish businessmen in both kiruv and standard Orthodox settings. As of 2011, Torah Live has presented over 150 lectures in 50 cities worldwide including two Torah Umesorah Conventions, the United Synagogue Rabbi Convention in London, the Munich Conversion Conference, and Her Majesty's Treasury in Westminster. Torah Live has rabbinical approbations from British Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Rabbi Yisrael Reisman of Agudath Israel, and Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits.
Abby Chava Stein is an Israeli-American transgender author, rabbi, activist, blogger, model, and speaker. She is the first openly transgender woman raised in a Hasidic community, and is a direct descendant of Hasidic Judaism's founder, the Baal Shem Tov. In 2015, she founded one of the first support groups nationwide for trans people with an Orthodox Jewish background who have left Orthodox Judaism.
Matthew "Matthue" Roth is an American author, poet, columnist, spoken word performer, video game designer, and screenwriter.
Rachel "Ruchie" Freier is a New York Supreme Court justice.
Deborah Feldman is an American-born German writer living in Berlin. Her 2012 autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, tells the story of her escape from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York, and was the basis of the 2020 Netflix miniseries Unorthodox.
Chava Shapiro, known also by the pen name Em Kol Chai, was a Russian Jewish writer, critic, and journalist. A pioneer of Hebrew women's literature and feminist literary criticism, Shapiro was among the most prolific of the diasporic women writers of Hebrew in the early twentieth century.
Lynn Rita Davidman is an American sociologist. She is the distinguished professor of modern Jewish studies and professor of sociology at the University of Kansas.
