This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
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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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Life RCA’s Resolution on Women’s Leadership May Prove Chilling
Women cannot be Orthodox rabbis. That much is clear in the resolution passed unanimously at the annual conference of the Rabbinical Council of America, held at the Young Israel of Scarsdale April 25-27. But that is all that’s clear in the resolution, which can be read in its entirety here. On the one hand, the…
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Life RCA: No Women Rabbis, No Matter What They’re Called
The Rabbinical Council of America, the main umbrella group for centrist Orthodox rabbis, just released its position statements, which were adopted this week at its annual conference. Here’s what the RCA had to say about women’s spiritual and executive leadership within Orthodoxy: The flowering of Torah study and teaching by God-fearing Orthodox women in recent…
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Life Jewish Feminists Take on the RCA
In a bold and passionate move, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) has sent two letters to the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), a leading Orthodox rabbinic organization, in an attempt to advance women’s leadership roles in synagogues and communities. One of the letters reads: As the major rabbinic arm in the Orthodox world, the…
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