Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at feldman@forward.com. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.
Ari Feldman
By Ari Feldman
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News TFW You Want To Multiply The Jewish People But Can’t Get Off Work
When “Emma,” a director of education at a Conservative synagogue in New York, began to prepare for her upcoming contract negotiations, she went to check the movement’s “Guide to Contractual Relations,” written to help people have such delicate conversations. She found that while the movement advises synagogues to offer clergy — rabbis and cantors —…
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News Measles Is Hitting Ultra-Orthodox Communities. Why Aren’t They Vaccinating?
The worst measles outbreak in recent New York history is hitting the Hasidic Jewish community due to low vaccination rates. With 55 cases in Brooklyn and 116 in two upstate counties since late September, it is the second time in five years that the community has seen a measles crisis. The previous record outbreak, in…
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News For Rabbis, Whichever Days They Get Off Are The Sacred Ones
“Everybody’s working for the weekend,” as the song goes. Except rabbis. They work on the weekend. Friday nights are for evening services and hosting guests at home. On Saturdays, the rabbi is at synagogue by 8 or 8:30 a.m. for the main event of his or her week: Shabbat services, with Torah reading. Sunday morning…
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News Hebrew Israelite Synagogue Pleads For Rebuilding Help — From Mainstream Jewry
At B’nai Adath Kol Beth Israel, a Hebrew Israelite congregation in Brooklyn, the rabbis have long doubled as handymen. They’ve fixed plumbing problems and frayed electrical wiring. Thirty years ago, they bought filtration masks and hazmat suits and replaced the asbestos-laden piping in the building. “We made it work,” said Rabbi Baruch Yehudah, the spiritual…
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News Baltimore Rabbi Expelled By Reform Rabbinic Group Amid Sex Misconduct Probe
The former senior rabbi of a historic Reform synagogue in Baltimore has been expelled by the movement’s rabbinical association two months after being fired by the board for over unspecified allegations of the movement’s ethical code, Rabbi Steven Fink was fired in October after the members of Temple Oheb Shalom, a large, 165-year-old community, voted…
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Fast Forward Steve Mnuchin’s Attempt To Calm Investors About The Economy Totally Backfired
An attempt by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to calm fears of a nose-diving economy backfired Sunday after his statements prompted worry from the very people he was speaking to, Bloomberg reported. In a statement released Sunday afternoon, Mnuchin said he called the CEOs of the country’s six largest banks, and that the CEOs reassured him…
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Israel News After Getting Kicked Off Birthright, Trio Regroups In West Bank
A day after being kicked off a Birthright Israel trip, three young American Jews went to the exact place Birthright would never take them: the West Bank. They are meeting with residents of a Bedouin village to ask them about living under Israel’s occupation of the territory, Emily Bloch said. Bloch, 29, along with Shira…
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Israel News Birthright Blasted By Activists For New Ban On ‘Hijacking Discussions’
Birthright Israel has sparked fresh outrage from critics by imposing vague new conditions barring participants from “hijack[ing] a discussion” during its flagship trips. The critics say the new clause in the contracts that all participants must sign could be used to squelch any discussion of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands — even though Birthright insists…
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