Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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Community The personal is political on Tisha B’Av
I didn’t talk to my roommate for an entire year. I was in 11th grade, at a Yeshiva where the students lived in dormitories on campus. Early in the school year, Sruli and I got into a fight. We were taking turns on a handheld electronic football game we had borrowed from a friend and,…
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Community Changing course in the middle of a pandemic
The sun rises in spite of everything and the far cities are beautiful and bright. I lie here in a riot of sunlight watching the day break and the clouds flying. Everything is going to be all right. — Derek Mahon Our world is drowning under the weight of pandemic as we fight toward the…
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Fast Forward Rabbis can serve in German military for the first time in 90 years
The German parliament voted unanimously Thursday to allow rabbis to serve as military chaplains in the Bundeswher, Germany’s military. Rabbis have not been able to serve as chaplains in the German military since Adolf Hitler expelled them in 1933. Jewish soldiers could only use Protestant or Catholic military chaplains. The change was first put forward…
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Fast Forward Synagogue jumps to revise slogan slammed as sexist for linking women and whining
A synagogue in Florida revised a slogan for an all-male panel after a tagline linking women and whininess drew criticism from feminists who are trying to address what they see as a lack of gender equity in Jewish communal work, such as education, philanthropy and the pulpit. As part of a ramped-up slate of online…
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Community ‘Could it be that I happened to have found an underutilized type of ventilator?’
Normally, my usual duties as a congregational rabbi have absolutely nothing to do with the provisioning of medical equipment. But these are extraordinary times. Our highest principle in Judaism is pikuach nefesh, “saving a life.” And what has kept me up at night throughout this crisis are these ventilators. Last week, a widely reported New…
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News One of our reporters got an email from a rabbi asking for gift cards. Here’s what happened next.
Here at the Forward, we get emails from rabbis all the time. I counted at least a dozen just last week in my inbox. So when Aiden Pink, our deputy news editor, received a vague email seemingly from Rabbi Sheldon Kleinman of Cong. House of Israel in Hot Springs, Ark. over the weekend, he didn’t…
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News ‘Rabbi’ gift card scam spurred congregants to spend thousands
The gift card email scam targeting American rabbis and synagogues has reached communities from New York to Hawaii, with some incidents of congregants falling for the scheme. Three members of a Conservative synagogue in Virginia responded to emails they thought were from their rabbi by buying a collective $2,500 worth of gift cards. So far,…
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News Rabbis are latest clergy targeted in email gift card scam
If you or your synagogue have been the target of this email scam and would like to share details of the incident, please contact Ari Feldman at [email protected]. A low-tech email scam targeting clergy has reached American rabbis, dozens of whom have taken to social media in recent days to alert their congregants and colleagues…
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News Jewish groups targeted Columbia grad Mahmoud Khalil — then ICE arrested him
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