Talia Avrahami, at The Blogs

May 27, 2026, 4:20 AM

Why the Chareidi & Dati Leumi Divide Goes Deeper Than Strictness

We are looking inside a world that outsiders flatten (David Katash, FrockInStock.com).

It is not a frumkeit ranking, but a question of religious instinct, cultural memory, and which world feels like home. Recently, I saw an online discussion on Imamother — a popular online forum for frum women — about whether there...

May 19, 2026, 7:08 PM

The US Constitution Does Not Follow You to Israel

When words cross borders, responsibility must follow them (Rafael Nir, Unsplash).

American Jews often forget that the First Amendment is not a foreign policy or a global eruv. One of the stranger habits of American Jewish life is the assumption that the United States Constitution follows American Jews wherever they go...

May 12, 2026, 11:32 AM

Flatbush Girl and the Problem with Neo-Conservative Orthodoxy

Orthodoxy is not merely a Brooklyn neighbourhood of sheitels and babkas — it is a system of obligation (Josh Wilburne, Unsplash).

A righteous cause does not sanctify every tactic. Agunos deserve justice, but Orthodox women’s bodies should not become weapons in someone else’s revolution.

Jan 19, 2026, 5:46 AM

What Worn Ballet Slippers Reveal About Jewish Women

This is where discipline and gentleness meet (Merve Sehirli Nasir, Unsplash).

In thinking about ballet shoes, I realise how Judaism has always privileged faithful doing over visible brilliance and extravagant might. Worn ballet shoes are not beautiful in the way costumes are. Their beauty is quieter: softened satin, frayed edges, and...

Jan 15, 2026, 2:06 AM

The Truth About Yoatzet Halacha and Maharat Feminism

Jewish women do not need to act like men to matter (Anna Mircea, Unsplash).

As Modern Orthodoxy and Open Orthodoxy clash over authority, the traditional centres of Torah life in Brooklyn and Yerushalayim watch with quiet scepticism and amusement. Seeing a War From the Outside I write this as a woman who lives comfortably and...

Dec 31, 2025, 6:37 AM

Parshas Vayechi and an Old World Truth About Chinuch

Let's not fix what isn't broken — like warm and heimishe challah (Svetlana, Unsplash).

Yaakov Avinu’s last words recover a maternal and conservative ethic of guidance, inheritance, and restraint. Parshas Vayechi is not a loud parsha. It does not announce itself with fire or spectacle. There are no miracles that suspend nature, no journeys...

Dec 24, 2025, 6:47 AM

‘Context’ Is the New Excuse

Jews around the world have to protest just for the right to live without fear (Dylan4photography, Unsplash).

In a culture obsessed with policing “harm,” ordinary speech is treated as bigotry — while explicit threats against Jews are endlessly explained away. In today’s public discourse, the problem is not simply disagreement — it is asymmetry. Certain statements, even...

Oct 28, 2025, 10:21 AM

Israel Must Never Catch the Worst American Disease

Us parents must teach our children to explore the world, not hide from it (Sharon Carr of Unsplash).

In Israel we say “yihye beseder.” In America they say “better safe than sorry.” Only one feels alive — the other’s too paralysed by lawsuits, hashtags, and moral panic to raise a backbone. A few months ago, I went for...

Sep 26, 2025, 12:08 AM

Public Transit Needs Public Decency

Waiting for the light rail in Jerusalem — strangers sharing space, journeys, and expectations of dignity (Levi Meir Clancy of Unsplash).

From Tel Aviv buses to the New York subway, we must ask: do our shared spaces reflect our shared values? One morning on the A train in Manhattan, my daughter and I sat side by side. She was dressed in...

Sep 22, 2025, 7:11 AM

From Boyhood to Bais Yaakov: An Intersex Ascent

Girls do not simply become women overnight — we slowly learn the ways of femininity (Egor Myznik of Unsplash).

Beaten down as a child for showing softness, but affirmed today as a halakhic woman — I am learning decades of frum femininity, all at once. My name is Talia. I was born intersex, was raised as a boy, and...

About Me

Talia Avrahami is an Israeli-American Orthodox Jewish educator and writer based in New York City. With a decade of classroom experience, she writes about Jewish education, faith, and the pressures that shape communal life. She is a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and her work has appeared in a range of Jewish and other outlets.

Contact Me