Keshet Starr, at The Blogs

Aug 9, 2024, 6:59 AM

The thought came to me in the very early days after October 7th–that this year, Tisha B’av will be different. No longer will we need to watch documentaries and read Kinnot to connect to our dark history, so distant...

Jul 10, 2024, 2:23 AM

Your Reaction Matters

New York’s Museum of Ice Cream is an Instragrammable wonderland, with rooms full of experiences, activities and photo-ops (plus kosher ice cream!). In one area, there’s a series of funhouse-style mirrorsâ€“look into them and you’re suddenly eight feet tall,...

Apr 5, 2024, 11:30 PM

Ringing in Freedom

There’s a tambourine necklace that sits in pride of place on my dresser. Its metal discs glint when the sun catches them, and it makes a celebratory jingling sound when you shake its tiny frame. My tambourine was given to...

Nov 21, 2023, 12:41 AM

Why the world is getting Israel wrong

Having spent over a decade helping agunot, women trapped in Jewish marriages, I have seen firsthand the challenges of advocacy, including the barriers to communal change. There are multiple social and psychological phenomena that lead to people condoning wrongful...

Oct 9, 2023, 7:42 AM

The Strangest Simchas Torah

My first inkling that something is going on comes Shabbos morning, when I go to shul. “There’s something going on in Israel,” a friend tells me quietly, a few feet away from where our children play. “And it’s bad.” The...

Aug 12, 2022, 1:28 PM

Featured Post

Why bother with the story of Amalek’s evil every year?

Part of the 40-mile long Russian military convoy making its way in southern Ivankiv, Ukraine, February 28, 2022. (Maxar satellite image)

We cannot pretend that the epic battles of good versus evil are things of the past, or we won't succeed in fighting evil when it's in our midst (Parshat Zachor)

May 23, 2021, 2:27 PM

We ALL Have a Role to Play in Ending Get Refusal

Written by Keshet Starr & Emily Zimmer There's no question about it: It's not an easy time to be a Jew. Between the Covid-19 pandemic, the tragedy in Meron, and tensions in the Middle East, our community has been struggling....

Feb 24, 2021, 10:11 PM

The Courage to Step Up: Becoming a Modern Esther

It’s an old story, and one we know well: A Jewish orphan is drafted into a country-wide search for a new queen, she captures the king’s attention, and then, in a dark hour, uses her elevated platform to save...

About Me

Keshet Starr is the Executive Director of the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA), the only nonprofit organization addressing the agunah (Jewish divorce refusal) crisis on a case-by-case basis worldwide. At ORA, Keshet oversees advocacy, early intervention, and educational initiatives designed to assist individuals seeking a Jewish divorce, and advocates for the elimination of abuse in the Jewish divorce process. Keshet has written for outlets such as the Times of Israel, The Forward, Haaretz, and academic publications, and frequently presents on issues related to Jewish divorce, domestic abuse, and the intersection between civil and religious divorce processes. A graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Keshet lives in central New Jersey with her husband and three young children.