By Nathaniel Popper
The plunging stock market and the Bernard Madoff scandal have ensured that ‘Help Wanted’ signs are a rarity in the Jewish communal world these days. In the past few weeks, some of the largest charities have slashed their staffs – most recently, it was the Union for Reform Judaism and the UJA-Federation of New York.
Read More
By Rebecca Spence
As the cultural divide over gay marriage deepens, two public intellectuals on opposite sides of the debate are floating a new proposal that could bridge the gap between religious conservatives — including Orthodox Jewish groups — and advocates for same-sex marriage.Read More
By Linda Kriger
Once a generation, every 28 years, Jews recite the Blessing of the Sun, the same prayer that is said upon seeing majestic mountains, seas, rivers and deserts: “Blessed are you, our God, King of the Universe, who effects the work of creation.” This is the moment that Jewish tradition says the sun returns to the original spot in the cosmos as when it was created on the fourth day.
Read More
By Anthony Weiss
A group of presidents of Conservative synagogues is threatening rebellion, and even possibly secession, if the Conservative movement’s congregational arm does not make prompt and dramatic structural changes, the Forward has learned.Read More
By Rebecca Dube
Jews who say they were sexually abused as children by their rabbis are seeking to tip the balance in favor of a long-stalled bill that would extend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse in New York State — legislation that could have far-reaching impact on some Orthodox communities as they struggle with emerging allegations of child abuse.
Read More
By Anthony Weiss
Conservative Judaism is being roiled by potentially tectonic changes that could lead to both new leadership for the movement and structural changes in how the movement’s organizations work.Read More
By Rebecca Dube
What would be a fair punishment for Bernard Madoff?
Read More
By Rebecca Spence
On the day known as Ta’anit Esther — when observant Jews fast before Purim — more than 150 members of Los Angeles’s close-knit Orthodox community gathered for a protest rally outside the family home of a man they claim has refused to grant his wife a Jewish divorce, known as a get. They chanted and prayed, and held signs that read “Stop the Abuse” and “Give Your Wife a Get.”
Read More
By Anthony Weiss
Some of the most prominent figures in Conservative Judaism are demanding a meeting with the leadership of the movement’s congregational arm to discuss a major overhaul of the way the troubled movement functionsRead More
By Rebecca Spence
The Israel on Campus Coalition, a Washington-based Israel education and advocacy umbrella group, says that there has been a dramatic upsurge in anti-Israeli activity on previously quiet college campuses.Read More