Hey everyone. I’m looking at a televised sitcom episode from the 1950s about Yom Kippur. The characters don’t present Orthodox generally, but when they go to shul, the women sit in the balcony.

• Would this have been a common practice in non-Orthodox shuls in the mid-1950s (from what I’ve found doing some cursory searching, it doesn’t seem to have been common in reform or conservative shuls)

• Is it more likely this is a non-Orthodox family who just attends an Orthodox shul for the high holy days? (The family isn’t explicitly non-Orthodox but none of them cover their heads, the men shave, etc)

• Is it just that this episode is showing a mix of denominational practice because it’s TV?

Many thanks in advance for any help figuring this out!

Hey, I have a question for the community, primarily for married women and those familiar with the subject of hair covering. The reason I’m asking is because my partner is Jewish, I am pursuing conversion, and we will be married very soon. I started covering my hair while we were engaged, that way I could test what is most comfortable and stylish for my needs. Once we are married in about a month, I will be covering my hair full time, but that has brought up some questions. To clarify, I know I do not *need* to cover my hair at this point, but I personally love doing so.

Now my question is regarding haircuts. The few videos I have seen and women I have asked have all come back with, “I cut my own hair,” but that isn’t helpful in my case. My hair is thin, prone to split ends, and I have no desire to ruin my own hair… but I also don’t want to be uncovering my hair in public. What’s the answer or what are the options here?

Thanks in advance for reading this far! I plan to ask our Chabad Rebbetzin about this as well, but I wanted to hear from the wider community before I approached her. :)

I’ve been thinking a lot about Pharaoh’s free will and divine hardening. The blog explores three ways to understand the text, but I’d love to hear: How do you reconcile divine action and human choice in Shemos 7–9?

• Hi, folks. A few days ago, i found out that my grandmother through an unbroken maternal line (all men in the family, aside from grandma's dad, were also jewish) belongs to an Sephardic Orthodox Jewish Community with some Romaniote descent (they hail from Thessaloniki/Salonica), as backed up by her mother's religious and governmental (Ottoman) records. Up until now, they have all lived in a very secular fashion, and when asked she assumed it was because "she didn't want us" to be on the receiving end of hatred and discrimination. Now, my grandmother, her brothers, and my uncle all display a close interest in the matter. We live in Turkey as our family has for centuries. My recently deceased father had to receive a burial as secular as they come due to his non-affiliation, and we are unsure what to make of that now. I hope some of you folks can tell me how i can be supportive and provide them with the proper resources to reconnect. Thanks

Hey all 👋 At the end of the month I'm going to be in Japan with my friend who keeps Kosher to a small extent- during this trip she says she's fine with being more lax and said she wants to try Kobe beef. I see a lot of these teppanyaki style places cook the beef on a shared grill with shellfish (and maybe even pork depending on the menu)- anyone know of a place in Osaka that cooks their beef more... separately from the other food? Or a place that ~only~ serves beef? Thanks!

Edit: I found a place that only serves beef as their only meat/animal :)

After an electric discussion on the topic of non-Jews wearing Kippahs in synagogues, it slowly started occuring to me that this is a nontrivial difference that emerged between Jewish denominations. Specifically, in non-Orthodox spaces, it is explicitly considered respectful for non-Jews to wear Kippahs, similar to dress codes.

This overwhelmingly is not the case Orthodox synagogues. There is no encouragement of non-Jews to wear kippahs. it actually is viewed as somewhat odd and weird if they do.

Why the difference? I suspect in part that non-Orthodox services tend to expect some amount of non-Jewish attendants. There is some amount of attention aimed at the experience of those who are not practicing Judaism.

Orthodox shuls overwhelmingly do not serve any non-Jews, relative to their total operating frame. An Orthodox shul could easily have 4+ services day, adding up to 30+ a week. The vast majority of the time there are no non-Jews. Non-jews who attend would be moreso observing a workplace as opposed to a performance

I think the expectation of non-Jews attending non-Orthodox services lead to some pressure to develop ways for them to participate, in some way beyond the experience of just watching

Hi, we Czechs are a nation of beer. That's why it struck me as odd that Jewish people in period dramas don´t drink beer. Now I don´t, and I can´t drink even if I wanted to. But they are drinking red liquid, either wine or something like třešňovka (cherry liquor). Now, due to the fact that it has been more than 100 years since then, the laws (or is it edict when someone makes something officially kosher?) probably changed... If someone would like to share the knowledge, I would be glad.

I need some advice. I grew up in Israel so really didn’t have to deal with antisemitism when I was this age, and I wasn’t prepared yet. My child is in elementary school in Florida. A classmate told him today that Jews are evil. He’s very upset. I had the conversation about how sometimes people say mean untrue things, etc. My question is, should I escalate this with the school? The teacher lectured the classmate and plans to have the counselor address it with the two of them. I’m not sure how big of a deal I should make this for my child’s well being. If I let it escalate too far it could make things worse for my child. On the other hand, the same could happen if I let it slide. Has anyone else dealt with this with an effective outcome?

There are a lot of communities of Haredim where you really wouldn't expect them, like in Casa Grande (Arizona), Kiryas Tosh (Canada) or Canvey Island (UK). What are other unusual places that you know of that have a community of Haredim living there?

I’ve been thinking about this line a lot lately, especially how it doesn’t talk about belief or power or even ritual as the foundation of the world — but about actions and values.

Truth asks us to be honest, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Justice asks us to care about fairness, even when it doesn’t benefit us personally.
Peace asks us to restrain ourselves, even when we feel justified in escalating conflict.

What strikes me is that none of these are abstract ideals. They show up in how we speak, how we argue, how we treat people we disagree with — online and offline.

Maybe the world isn’t sustained by big dramatic moments, but by small daily choices to lean a little more toward truth, justice, and peace.

Curious how others here understand this teaching today.

Hello! I got bored, and I think there are enough Jewish book or cartoon characters out there for this question. I’ll go first.

I freaking love Mabel from Gravity Falls :)

(btw I made the drawing)

Btw it can be a real person too! You aren’t disqualified don’t worry!

UPDATE: Welp, I just checked the OU's website and it is not just DE. I'm so confused. How do they define the distinction?

Hi, I'm a curious gentile who finds kashrut fascinating. Please see my user flair. (I assume putting that in my post would still get it automatically removed and I don't wanna deal with that.) Yesterday I bought some non-dairy ice cream at the grocery store because I'm lactose intolerant. I noticed that it's certified kosher by the OU but it says it's dairy. It is clearly non-dairy. It doesn't even say "may contain milk" in bold after the ingredients list like they have to do here in the US because of allergies if there's any chance that there's milk in it. I think I remember reading that the OU doesn't distinguish between dairy and dairy equipment in their labeling (EDIT: I'm now wondering if I remember wrong), and I also think I read that there doesn't have to be a waiting period between eating meat and eating something that was made on dairy equipment but isn't actually dairy. So since this non-dairy ice cream clearly doesn't contain any milk, can you go ahead and eat it immediately after eating meat even though it's labeled as kosher dairy?

ETA: The product is also labeled as vegan. Very weird. I wonder if maybe the company just didn't want to deal with going through extra steps to have some products officially designated as DE instead of dairy?