This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
-
News Rabbis warn Jews are ‘self-censoring’ on race, gender
Rabbis from more than 100 North American congregations have signed a letter decrying the exclusion of Jews whose views on race and gender fall to the right of the progressive mainstream. “The ascendency of an ideology that in its most simplistic form sees the world solely in binary terms of oppressed versus oppressor, and categorizes…
-
Opinion Our Reform leaders sinned. Should we still sing songs they wrote?
Reform synagogues across the nation are struggling to make sense of the damning report released earlier this month showing nearly unfettered patterns of unwanted sexual contact between male faculty and female students at Hebrew Union College over five decades. Released on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the report, conducted by an independent law firm, showed that…
-
Fast Forward Andrew Cuomo questions investigators by calling Chuck Schumer their ‘rabbi’
In an attempt to discredit one of the investigators in his sexual assault inquiry, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo referred to Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, as his questioner’s “rabbi.” That’s according to the transcript released Wednesday by the office of state Attorney General Letitia James. In a contentious 10-hour interview under oath…
-
Opinion Growing up in Israel, I had never heard of Rabbi Sacks. After his death, I fell in love with his message
In Nov. 2020, I came across a minor story on an inside page of an Israeli newspaper, reporting that Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom “and one of the most important thinkers of our time,” had passed away. I had never come across his name before, so I thought that…
-
Opinion I served in Afghanistan as an Army chaplain. Jewish wisdom can help us process what comes after withdrawal
When the US was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, I was the same age as the current cadets at West Point are now. After graduating from college, I assumed I would leave the dangers of Afghanistan to our military and focus on studying for the Jewish clergy. Growing up on the Upper East Side, Judaism…
-
News More than 1,000 ‘Rabbis for Repro’ work for abortion rights. Their fight just got tougher.
Scrolling through Twitter in her pajamas Tuesday night, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg learned that the Supreme Court would allow a strict anti-abortion law to take effect in Texas. “Honestly, I was shocked, though I know I shouldn’t have been,” said Ruttenberg, who last year launched Rabbis for Repro, a group of Jewish clergy who work to…
-
Yiddish World Yiddish Jokes with Ruth Kohn: “The Eulogy” (with English subtitles)
It’s widely known that Eastern European Jews have a traditional, ironic brand of humor. You can hear it clearly in this anecdote told by Ruth Kohn, a professional Yiddish translator and interpreter, at a talent show held at the annual “Yiddish Vokh” in Copake, NY:
-
Yiddish World The Yiddish professor and female Orthodox rabbi sharing Yiddish children’s literature with the world
Read this article in Yiddish A jack of many trades is sometimes a master of them all Speaking with Miriam Udel, the Yiddish professor at Emory University in Atlanta who is reacquainting the world with Yiddish children’s literature, you quickly notice something remarkable. In one moment she sounds like a literary scholar and in the…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion I know exactly why leftists aren’t celebrating this ceasefire
- 2
Culture Why Diane Keaton still matters
- 3
Special Report This school is fighting antisemitism all wrong. Why is it working?
- 4
Opinion Trump drew Arab leaders into a historic peace agreement. Too bad about the one glaring caveat
In Case You Missed It
-
Yiddish World A glimpse of the Jewish left in 1920s Palestine
-
Fast Forward 2 more deceased hostages, including only woman, returned to Israel as Hamas says it has freed all it can
-
Fast Forward Simchat Torah in Hostages Square lays bare divide over just how much to celebrate yet
-
Opinion War strained the Israel-Vatican bond. Will the pope use the ceasefire to heal those wounds?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
