Fred Guttman
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Greensboro, North Carolina has one of the most vibrant Southern Jewish communities — because of Rabbi Fred Guttman. My adult children, mentored by him, have rock-solid Jewish identities despite a Bible Belt rearing. He is rabbi to our entire community, leading interfaith events, taking clergy to Israel, and holding forums on expanding Medicaid. His leadership inside our temple expands beyond Greensboro. He organized a Jewish program for the official 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama at Temple Mishkan Israel. Keynote speakers included Dr. Susannah Heschel and David Goodman, brother of slain activist Andrew Goodman, among other Jewish leaders. The civil rights movement was a proud moment in American Jewish history, too. Rabbi Guttman will not let that our part in that history die. He knows that issues of civil rights concern all of us and is reminding Jews not to forget it.
— Neil Belenky +3 other nominations
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
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