A group of leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis issued a proclamation November 2 asserting that the so-called Open Orthodox movement is not legitimately Orthodox and that rabbis ordained in its seminaries are not rabbis. The proclamation by the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America, the ultra-Orthodox rabbis who guide the Agudath Israel of America, is the latest salvo…
A leading Open Orthodox rabbi has defended the progressive movement against attacks made last week by Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the head of the ultra-Orthodox organization Agudath Israel. “I welcome (Perlow) into the conversation of how to bring a Torah message to all Jews that is meaningful to them and their lives,” said Rabbi Asher Lopatin,…
At a time when most Jewish leaders are eagerly embracing anyone who claims a shred of Jewish identity or heritage, some Orthodox leaders are doing just the opposite: dramatically restricting the acceptable behaviors and belief systems of even their own. So we have the embarrassing spectacle of Rabbi Asher Lopatin, the new president of Yeshivat…
The perils of religious self-definition became amusingly apparent in the recent Pew survey of American Jews. One category of “Jews” was “Jews by affinity” – Americans lacking any Jewish parentage or any Jewish background who simply choose to call themselves Jews; more than one million people so identified themselves. Similarly suspicious are the survey’s self-described…
Rabbi Asher Lopatin is feeling a little “roughed up.” It’s October 17, less than a fortnight since Lopatin’s official installation as president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a liberal Orthodox rabbinical school in the Bronx, and his attempts to reach out to New York’s Orthodox community are not going well. Sitting in a cramped office at…
When I was a kid, my mom told me, “Dress British, think Yiddish.” The credo for Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) now is “Learn ‘Litv-ish,’ daven ‘Hasid-ish,’ act ‘normal-ish.’”, according to Rabbi Daniel Landes, who on Sunday formally installed Rabbi Asher Lopatin as the second president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. The installation ceremony, held at the…
The annual Newsweek list of America’s “Top Rabbis” — now hosted by The Daily Beast, since Newsweek doesn’t exist anymore as a print product — was published today, a day after the Forward’s first-ever reader-driven project looking for the nation’s most inspiring rabbis. The contrast is fascinating. Newsweek’s list is a classic journalistic attempt to…
When Rabbi Asher Lopatin takes over the helm of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah next summer, he may try to pull off something of a football move at the Modern Orthodox rabbinical school: Look left while going right. In the 12 years since Rabbi Avi Weiss founded the school as a more liberal, pulpit-focused alternative to Yeshiva…
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