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Boca Raton Synagogue Demands Answers on Accused Y.U. Pedophile Richard Andron
Some congregants at a synagogue in Boca Raton, Fla., are asking whether current or former rabbis knew of the allegations that followed accused pedophile Richard Andron to their community. “The rabbi needs to explain to all of us, how and why this situation occurred and what will be done in the future to (ensure) that…
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Mothers of Down Syndrome Babies Have Options in Ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem
When Shmuel, my sixth child, arrived with Down syndrome, I cried bitterly as I imagined myself dead and him homeless; I played hostess to numerous other fantasies, my own and those of other women, who came to cry by my childbed. But when I returned to life and found my husband distressed and exhausted, I…
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Man Named in Y.U. Suit Lured Boys With Karate, Porn — and Modern Orthodox Ties
To the Orthodox boys of Englewood, N.J., and Monsey, N.Y., Richard “Ricky” Andron was unbelievably cool: a 30-something bachelor and martial arts expert who hosted Sabbath sleepovers at his apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where they played cards and looked at pornographic magazines. But Andron’s apartment, just off Central Park, was a trap, according…
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Sweeping E-Rate Changes Proposed by FCC Member After Forward Exposes Flaws
A Federal Communications Commission commissioner has proposed sweeping reforms to the E-Rate program, a school and library technology subsidy that was the subject of two Forward exposes this year. The proposed changes to the program, announced by Republican FCC commissioner Ajit Pai at the American Enterprise Institute on July 16, would entirely reshape how the…
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The 92-Year-Old Jewish Skydiver
There won’t be any skydiving for 92-year-old Aaron Rosloff this year. He spent his past two birthdays jumping out of planes as part of a fundraising mission for the South Brunswick Food Pantry in New Jersey. He planned to celebrate his 92nd birthday, July 3, with a third jump, but after he broke his ankle…
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New Generation of Transgender Rabbis Ties Jewish Practice and Gender Change
In the next few years, the number of transgender rabbis in America is expected to double — from three to six. The tiny cohort makes up a miniscule percentage of the rabbis graduating rabbinical school, but these individuals have already played a big role in their respective seminaries to provoke conversations about gender and Judaism….
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For Ari Lev Fornari, Gender and Palestinian Liberation Are Linked
“I am one of those people who have wanted to be a rabbi since I was a little kid,” said Ari Lev Fornari, a fifth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew College, a pluralistic college of Jewish studies in Newton Centre, Mass. His professional ambitions were “not disconnected from my own queer inclination.” The only out gay…
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Jacob Lieberman Wants To Change the Jewish World
“I didn’t come to be a rabbi because I wanted to change the Jewish world about transgender issues,” said Jacob Lieberman, 34, a fourth-year student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, in Wyncote, Pa. “I came because I have Jewish ideas that I want to help to infuse into our society.” Lieberman’s aim to make Judaism…
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Leiah Moser Challenges Progressive Jewish Feminism
When Leiah Moser began her gender transition last year, she found an unexpected cushion in rabbinical school, where many of her fellow students were trying on new identities and even new names. “All of my classmates are undergoing this intense, extreme process of transformation, and most of them feel just as challenged and confused about…
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First Generation of Transgender Rabbis Claims Place at Bimah
When it comes to the acceptance of transgender Jews, the American Jewish community is itself in a moment of transition. In 2008, Joy Ladin became the public face of transgender Judaism when she transitioned from male to female after receiving tenure at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. Five years later, there are at least…
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For Elliot Kukla, Gender Transition and Ordination Went Hand in Hand
“I don’t think it was an accident that I found myself coming out as trans at the same time that I found myself becoming ordained,” said Rabbi Elliot Kukla, the first out transgender rabbi to be ordained in 2006 at HUC-JIR’s Los Angeles campus. “There is a certain identity transition in becoming a rabbi that,…
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