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Breaking News ‘Racist’ Rabbi Urged To Drop Sephardic Bid
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein informed Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu on Monday evening that it would be inappropriate for him to run for the post of Sephardi chief rabbi, in light of certain contentious remarks and the “legal difficulties” posed by his candidacy. Eliyahu, the current chief rabbi of Safed and the son of former Sephardi Chief…
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News 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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News Leonard Matanky, Chicago Rabbi, Named to Head RCA
The leading Modern Orthodox rabbinical association selected Rabbi Leonard Matanky, a longtime insider, as its new president at a recent convention. Matanky, who leads an Orthodox synagogue and a Jewish day school in Chicago, will replace Rabbi Shmuel Goldin as president of the Rabbinical Council of America. Matanky previously served as vice-president under Goldin. “We…
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Breaking News Rabbi Blames Fake Cop Drama on Bipolar Disorder
A suburban New York rabbi accused of impersonating a police officer is claiming his bipolar disorder led to his attempt to stop and yell at a woman driver who was driving slowly in a school zone. Rabbi Alfredo Borodowski of Congregation Sulam Yaakov in Larchmont in Westchester County, N.Y., was arrested on June 19 and…
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Breaking News ‘Don’t Sell to Arabs’ Rabbi Backed in Israel Race for Sephardic Chief
Most of the members of the Jewish Home Knesset faction support the election of Safed’s chief rabbi, Shmuel Eliyahu, as Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel. The MKs have voiced their support despite criticism of Eliyahu’s candidacy even within the religious Zionist movement because of racist statements he has made in the past. Haaretz checked and…
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Breaking News Medical Marijuana Gets Blessing of Orthodox Rabbi — But Don’t Get High
An Israeli Orthodox rabbi ruled that distributing and smoking medicinal marijuana are kosher, but using weed for fun was “forbidden.” Efraim Zalmanovich, the rabbi of Mazkeret Batia, a town south of Tel Aviv, made the distinction in a recent halakhic ruling, NRG, the news site of the Maariv daily reported on Friday. Leading rabbis frequently…
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Opinion Jonathan Sacks and the Twin Danger Facing Jews
Jonathan Sacks, the outgoing British chief rabbi, is warning of a twin threat to Judaism from assimilation on the one hand and ultra-Orthodoxy on the other. At his retirement dinner, he said that “those who embrace the world and reject Judaism, and those who embrace Judaism and reject the world” represent a “global danger” to…
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Life Female Rabbis Should Have Male Friends
Does a woman need to give up friendships with members of the opposite sex when she marries a man? For Rabbi Rachel Miller Solomin, the answer is yes. In a piece for Tablet, she writes about the decision to write a friend — a Catholic priest with whom she said explicitly she would never have…
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