Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
rabbis
The Latest
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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,…
-
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…
-
News Letter from Alabama: ‘Rabbi, will you take my dog when the Rapture comes?’
I was blessed to spend the bulk of my rabbinic service in a place I didn’t belong. I am a Yankee, born in New York, who served a synagogue in the Deep South. When I first arrived decades ago, I found myself anxiously striving to keep Judaism — and Jews — from being submerged in…
-
Israel News Rabbis At Bergen-Belsen Used This Ledger To Help Holocaust Survivors Remarry
Update, 9:30 a.m.: The auction has been put on hold. A court in Tel Aviv put a hold on the sale after a lawsuit was filed by the Organization of Bergen-Belsen Survivors in Israel. Read more at this link. A ledger meant to free people from marriage to spouses who were missing and presumed dead…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Scoop: Heritage Foundation plans to ‘identify and target’ Wikipedia editors
- 2
Fast Forward Their Pacific Palisades synagogue is standing, but all three rabbis lost their homes
- 3
News ‘Do you have the Torahs?’ Synagogue races LA wildfire to rescue its past and future
- 4
Music For Bob Dylan’s biographer, ‘A Complete Unknown’ is a dream come true — even if it’s mostly fiction
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Celebrating Shabbat in Los Angeles: Amid the fires, a still, small voice
-
Opinion ‘Home is memory’: How Jews make sense of what they’ve lost in the LA fires and what remains
-
News LA fires won’t stop bar mitzvahs this Shabbat, as joy and pain meet
-
News HIAS cuts 22 staff even as it braces for Trump immigration crackdown
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
