What is "edah"

right|framed|Official logo of EDAH declares its motto.

Edah, should not be confused with the Haredi communal body in Israel known as the Edah HaChareidis.

Edah was a Modern Orthodox Jewish organization, generally associated with the liberal wing of Orthodox Judaism in the United States and with the Religious Zionism movement of Israel. Its headquarters are located in Manhattan, New York City.

Edah states that it is "committed to ... modern Orthodoxy, which maintains a serious devotion to Torah and Halakhah while enjoying a mutually enriching relationship with the modern world ..."

In July 2006, Edah announced plans to close down its operations as a stand-alone entity. Its founder and director, Rabbi Saul Berman, will be transitioning to an administrative position at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a Modern Orthodox yeshiva in New York City. The reason was that given limited financial resources available to the Orthodox community, a tactical decision was made so that its goals would be able to continue through other means. As such, Orthodox rabbis associated with Edah still will contribute to their goals through their membership in the Rabbinical Council of America, they still will attend conferences, such as the conferences on women, feminism and Orthodox, e.g. JOFA, and they would still publish articles in a continuing form of The Edah Journal. As such, YCT has assumed EDAH's journal, website, and audio-visual library.

Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School recently announced Meorot: A Forum of Modern Orthodox Discourse. The YCT website states:

Formerly known as The Edah Journal, the journal has become one of the most widely read and influential publications in the Jewish world, attracting more than 10,000 online readers per month from the Orthodox and academic communities. In the last five years, the journal has published ground-breaking analyses of the role of women in Orthodox life, Judaism's attitudes toward "the other," Jewish education, the possibilities for holiness in modern life, and the interface of halakhah and modern values.

According to the Edah website:

Edah is a grassroots movement founded in 1996 to refresh the spirit of the Orthodox Jewish community. Unlike ultra-Orthodoxy, which thrives in isolation from modern society, modern Orthodoxy integrates with and gains strength from its encounters with modernity. Edah entered the scene to promote an open minded and open-hearted Orthodoxy, passionately committed to Jewish Law while remaining receptive to general culture. Through education, leadership training, advocacy, and communications, Edah seeks to renew modern Orthodoxy and its lead institutions and to strengthen the ties between Orthodoxy and the Jewish people at large.