Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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The Schmooze Hey, Rabbi: The Catskills Called. They Said They Miss You.
Dear Rabbi: Thanks for the double-bar-mitzvah Saturdays, the two-shift High Holy Day services, the grief counseling, Hebrew school teaching, Torah study leading, hospital visiting, song leading and sermon writing, but seriously now — do us both a favor: Take a vacation. An article in the New York Times reports that recent research has shown the…
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Life Sisterhood 50 Nominations Pour In
My colleagues and I like to joke that Newsweek’s publishing of an annual “most influential rabbis” list makes about as much sense as the Forward publishing an annual list of “most influential newsweeklies,” which, of course, we don’t. In a more sensible move, the Forward’s women’s issues blog, The Sisterhood, last week put out an…
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The Schmooze ‘Michael Jackson of Jewish Music’ Headed to Jail
Michoel Streicher, a 50-year-old mentally ill Orthodox cantor who was popular (in certain circles) in the 1990s and calls himself “The Michael Jackson of Jewish music,” was sentenced yesterday to one to three years in prison for stealing $36,000 from a fan, according to the Daily News. The victim, 55-year-old Judy Burstein, gave Streicher the…
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Life Which Women Should Have Made Newsweek’s Most Influential Rabbis List?
Newsweek is just out with its 4th annual list of what it deems to be “the 50 most influential rabbis in America.” This year, as last, few women have made the cut and all but one are in the bottom half of the list. The first woman to appear — Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus, the…
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The Schmooze Synagogue Welcomes Biker Rabbi
It may be the first time that a rabbi is officially welcomed to his new synagogue on two wheels. Joined by his mentor and congregants both new and old, newly ordained Rabbi Eytan Hammerman will bike from the synagogue where he spent the last two years as a rabbinic intern, to his new one 30…
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The Schmooze Rebbe in a Box!
Praying by the graves of long-deceased holy men is a time-honored Jewish practice, especially on the recent holiday of Lag b’Omer, when thousands flock to the resting place of R’ Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron. But what about kohanim, who are not allowed to come into contact with the dead, or even enter a cemetery?…
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The Schmooze Shalom in the Catholic Home: Shmuley Urges Pope To Have Shabbat Dinners
If doling out advice — from parenting to relationships to spirituality — to American Jews and Gentiles wasn’t enough, celebrity rabbi Shmuley Boteach has gone for the big score: the Bishop of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church, the Pope. By consulting with Rabbi Shmuley, the Pope joins the ranks of Michael Jackson and…
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Life Women Leaving Orthodoxy
The recent Rabbinical Council of America decision to exclude women from the rabbinate brought to mind the 2004 film “Mekudeshet: Sentenced to Marriage,” a documentary about women stuck in the divorce process in Israel. There is one particularly heart-wrenching scene that has been playing over in my mind recently. “Rachel,” a 30-something Orthodox mother of…
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