Jennifer Siegel
By Jennifer Siegel
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News No Consensus at Conservative Meeting
BOSTON — The highly optimistic motto at the biennial convention of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism this week was “lighting the way.” But as delegates debated a variety of hot-button issues, it was clear to many who attended the gathering here that Conservative leaders do not have a consensus vision for which direction the…
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News Struggle Roiling Posh Synagogue In Hamptons Is Coming to a Head
A bitter power struggle at one of the country’s toniest synagogues is coming to a head, as supporters of the rabbi are hoping to vote out the current board of trustees and elect a new slate of officers at a meeting this weekend. Backers of Rabbi David Gelfand — the embattled leader of the Jewish…
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News Oldest Bat Mizvah Girl in History! (Or So We Think)
Age has not slowed Esther Eisner: She graduated from college at 90 and worked as a bookkeeper until she was 93. It seemed only fitting, then, for her family to celebrate her upcoming 100th birthday with another first: a better-late-than-never bat mitzvah. “I was sure she would say no, so she said yes,” said her…
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News Reform Head Blasts Right For ‘Bigotry,’ ‘Blasphemy’
HOUSTON — In the second major attack on religious conservatives by a Jewish communal leader in recent weeks, the head of America’s largest synagogue movement delivered a speech last week condemning “zealots” on the “religious right” who spend more time fueling “anti-gay bigotry” than fighting poverty and other social ills. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of…
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News Rabbi Urges Conversion, Sexual Limits
HOUSTON — For more than a quarter-century, the Reform movement has made it a priority to reach out to interfaith couples. Now, its leader, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, said it’s time to start doing more to encourage non-Jewish spouses to convert to Judaism. Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, issued the call to action…
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News L.A. Rabbi Eyed As Conservative Seminary Head
Support is mounting for a prominent pulpit rabbi from Los Angeles to become the next chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, after he delivered an enthusiastically received speech last week on the future of Conservative Judaism. Rabbi David Wolpe, the charismatic leader of one the country’s largest congregations, L.A.’s Sinai Temple, urged his audience at…
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News New Orleans Jews Face a Quandary: Should They Stay or Should They Go?
NEW ORLEANS — Harry Lazarus, the owner of a construction company founded by his father-in-law nearly a half century ago, has lived in New Orleans his entire life. He has no plans to leave anytime soon. His older brother, Edward, an obstetrician, delivered babies during Hurricane Katrina without the aid of electricity or epidurals, then…
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News New Orleans Synagogues Brace for Hard Times Ahead
NEW ORLEANS — Before Hurricane Katrina hit, the Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation had $750,000 in pledges from congregants and was planning to update its 1970s-era building in suburban New Orleans. Now, nearly three months after the storm, the city’s only Conservative congregation faces a fiscal crisis and is simply hoping to survive. The synagogue suffered…
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