Media

Rockland

Haredi advocacy group OJPAC has closed for now. Its founder explains why

Yossi Gestetner, once called “one of the smartest public relations guys in New York City,” is pivoting to business consulting.

Media

Kave Shtiebel, the ‘unusually tolerant’ Hasidic online forum, is closing

The popular and enduring platform, whose name means “coffee room” in Yiddish, has been blocked by some kosher internet filters due to its discussions of taboo subjects.

Music

AUDIO FEATURE: Hasidic artists in Brooklyn bring the golden age of cantorial music into the digital age

A new book by Jeremiah Lockwood, a musician and Jewish Studies scholar, explores the world of young Hasidic cantorial artists, who have mastered the vocal techniques of the great cantors of a century ago

Israel

U.S. Haredi leadership find consensus in lamenting Israel’s yeshiva draft changes

Leading Satmar newspapers decried the change using dramatic headlines and heated rhetoric, while the Agudah called the new rules a “war on the Torah”

Israel

Agudath Israel and other Orthodox leaders rebuke Senator Schumer for his anti-Netanyahu speech

Schumer’s speech on the senate floor called for new Israeli elections and for removing Netanyahu as prime minister of Israel

Monsey

Monsey supermarket prank and false rumor gets some Haredi media riled up

Prankster Mo Gelber entered an obscenity at a self-checkout kiosk at Monsey’s Evergreen supermarket. Not everyone found it funny

Gender

‘For Women and Girls Only’: new book explores Haredi women artists and performers

Author Jessica Roda charts a trend in which Haredi women's art and creativity has transcended schools and summer camps

Media

Fact-check: ‘Der Blatt’ publishes fake letter from state police about lights and sirens

The fraudulent document, which had circulated on social media, claimed to be about an “enforcement initiative” from the New York State Police

Technology

Flip phones: not just for Haredim anymore, says NY Times

In a recent profile of Haredi-owned Fabuwood cabinet manufacturer, columnist Kashmir Hill praised the company’s no-smartphone policy

Courts

RICO suit against rabbinical courts brought by founder of ‘Kindlein’ children’s magazine

Mendel Paneth, the visionary artist behind the wildly popular Yiddish-language kids’ magazine, claims rabbinical courts colluded with his former partner to sabotage his business in retaliation for defying a rabbinic order

Gender

Controversial rabbi launches campaign to ‘rescue’ women from ‘indignities’ of Israeli military service

Rabbi Noson Leiter, who endorsed an Alabama politician mired in sexual misconduct allegations, is calling to “save our daughters” from military service

Haredi Life

Year end reflections on Shtetl’s first ten months of reporting: the top issues of 2023

With the intimate familiarity of insiders but free from the usual top-down oversight of Haredi media, we reported on everything from the Satmar rebbe's bragging about deceiving legislators to Agudah's efforts to keep the Times from winning a Pulitzer