Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
-
News When A Retired Rabbi Is The Elephant In The Synagogue
Some retired rabbis just can’t let go. There’s the rabbi who wants to marry the kid he bat mitzvah-ed, or the rabbi who thinks he could give a better Yom Kippur sermon than the next guy. Some may simply feel that the buck should still stop with them, even when they’re no longer officially in…
-
Community An Outspoken Orthodox Rabbi Is Breaking The Rabbinate’s Monopoly On Marriage
A version of this article originally appeared in Plus61J, an Australian-Jewish publication. Israelis love complaining about the overbearing power of the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate. Few, however, have done more to challenge the Rabbinate’s monopoly over Jewish life choices than Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz of Jerusalem. After completing his struggle to introduce alternative kosher certificates to restaurants…
-
News A Tax Break For Rabbis Might Be Unconstitutional. Can They Make Ends Meet Without It?
What does Rabbi Aviad Bodner, leader of Manhattan’s historic Stanton Street Shul, which seats 400, have in common with televangelist mega-preachers whose sermons reach millions of people around the world? All get a tax break on their housing costs — despite the fact that Bodner rents a two-bedroom in Manhattan’s East Village with his wife…
-
The Schmooze Orthodox Rabbi Caught Studying Torah During Soccer Game Goes Viral
Rabbi Zev Leff never set out to be a viral star — he just wanted to get in some Torah study. But the Haredi rabbi of Moshav Matityahu, located near the Israeli city of Modiin, became an accidental sensation when a stadium camera caught him studying at the Israel-Scotland game in Glasgow. Rav Leff was…
-
Fast Forward Hero California Rabbi Evacuates For Wildfire — But Only After Shabbat In Secret Prayer Bunker
Rabbi Barry Diamond wasn’t about to let California’s raging fires get in the way of welcoming Shabbat with his congregants. Despite receiving an evacuation notice, Diamond and Cantor David Shukiar of Temple Adat Elohim in Thousand Oaks continued with their planned virtual service, streamed on Facebook Live, according to a Facebook post. “We hope that…
-
Fast Forward Jewish Gun Store Owner Offers Free Rifles To Rabbis
(JTA) — The Jewish owner of a gun shop in Colorado has offered to give rabbis semi-automatic rifles for free following the murder of 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Mel Bernstein, who owns Dragon Arms near Colorado Springs, made the offer in an item aired Wednesday on KOAA-TV’s News5. “Lets say…
-
News Conservative Movement Gives Rabbis Green Light To Attend Intermarriages
The Conservative movement’s central authority on Jewish law has announced that rabbis can attend weddings between Jews and non-Jews. The decision overturns over four decades of assumptions that the movement’s rabbis could be kicked out simply for being a guest at an interfaith wedding. Over the years, rabbis skipped out on countless weddings of close…
-
Life Meet The Father-Daughter Rabbi Duo Leading Yom Kippur Together
Arnie Gluck has served the congregation Temple Beth-El of Hillsborough, New Jersey, for 28 years. Sarah Gluck, who is married to Rabbi Gluck, is in her 18th year as the synagogue’s director of education. Shira, the couple’s younger daughter, is in her final year of study at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College, where she…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go
- 2
News What a Mayor Mamdani would mean for New York Jews
- 3
Fast Forward Mamdani tells Colbert — and a national audience — why NYC Jews shouldn’t fear him as mayor
- 4
Opinion Mamdani’s victory is an opportunity for Jews to relearn the art of disagreement
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Trump wants to control the Israeli judiciary. Uh, good luck
-
Fast Forward Mamdani dodges calls to condemn ‘globalize the intifada’ slogan amid Jewish concerns
-
Culture Why Jews bury books like they bury the dead
-
Fast Forward ‘Let Bibi go,’ ‘Make the deal in Gaza’: Trump renews Israel demands in social media posts
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
