This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
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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…
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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…
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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:
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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…
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News For the Conservative movement, an audit of ethics policies might be overdue
When the Conservative movement censured an upstate New York rabbi in 2019 for a problematic relationship with a woman who had received his rabbinic guidance and attended services, there was no public written record of the offense or the punishment. There was no announcement to the congregation, Temple Beth-El in Poughkeepsie, indicating any problem with…
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Community The letter some of my rabbinical students wrote shows a lack of empathy—with Jews
This is an open letter from the dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies of American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Rabbi Bradley S. Artson. It comes in response to a letter signed by scores of rabbinic and cantorial students at Ziegler and other schools, which the Forward published on May 13. Dear Hevrei,…
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News A non-Jewish Iranian opposition group reaches out to American Jews
The grassroots Iranian opposition group that posted an anti-regime billboard in Times Square is now turning to the American Jewish community for help. “The American Jewish community has had a proud history of supporting social justice and human rights causes,” said Ali Ebrahimzadeh, a Muslim-born opposition activist to the Iranian regime. “We are now asking…
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News ‘A lot of work to do’: A Black female rabbi on the anti-racist progress the Jewish community has, and hasn’t, made
Rav Tiferet Berenbaum is a busy woman these days, but she will absolutely and happily find time to slot you in for a phone call while she runs out to get coffee for herself and her fellow rabbis. The pandemic has not slowed her duties: in addition to her usual work as a clergy member…
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