This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
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News The Rebbe’s Passover Declaration Against White Flight
The history of gentrification and white flight in Crown Heights has a surprising figure at its center: the Chabad-Lubavitch rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. As the leader of one of the most influential Jewish groups in New York, Schneerson had an outsized influence on the politics and population of Crown Heights, which contains the headquarters of…
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News Reform Rabbi Was Secretly Censured For Affair With Congregant
When a Reform rabbi resigned from his Durham, North Carolina synagogue recently, the synagogue’s lawyer said the problem was “sexual in nature.” Now the Forward has learned what those words meant. The rabbi had a yearlong, sexual relationship with a woman who regularly worshipped at the synagogue. The Reform movement’s rabbinical association had censured him…
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Fast Forward Conversion Plan Would Strip Control From Israel Rabbinate
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A proposal to overhaul the conversion system in Israel would remove it from under the control of the haredi-Orthodox dominated rabbinate, sparking opposition from the chief rabbis of Israel and dozens of haredi and religious Zionist rabbis. The final report and recommendations on conversion in Israel written former government minister Moshe Nissim…
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News Liberal Orthodox Rabbis Rejected By Israel Rabbinate
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An internal correspondence document written by a senior member of Israel’s Rabbinical Courts rejects the authority of all rabbis who receive their ordination from a yeshiva located in New York. The document, obtained by Itim, a nonprofit that guides Israelis through the country’s religious bureaucracy, shows that despite the haredi Orthodox-dominated Chief…
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Fast Forward Money-Flashing Rabbi Costume Yanked From Amazon
(JTA) – Following complaints, a picture of a model holding money while wearing a rabbi costume was pulled off the Amazon Germany shopping website. The ads for the costume — a black hat with synthetic sidelocks that costs up to $20 — appeared on the German-language version of Amazon up until last week, the news…
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Fast Forward Iceland Welcomes First Rabbi — As It Considers Ban On Circumcision
(JTA) REYKJAVIK, Iceland (JTA) — At a windswept harbor of this Nordic capital, a bearded man wearing a black hat dips eating utensils into the icy water while hissing from pain induced by the bitter cold. Perplexed by the spectacle, a caretaker helpfully offers to let the man and his three companions use a washing…
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Community Why Are Conservative Jews Ignoring Our Own Intermarriage Rate?
Most non-profits try to avoid contested elections and just push through a nominating committee report. But sometimes there’s an issue that can’t be shoved aside, a philosophical dispute with the potential to clarify the institution’s mission and meaning. That seems to be the case this year at my professional association, the Rabbinical Assembly — the…
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Fast Forward Sephardic Chief Rabbi Could Be Charged For Racist ‘Monkey’ Remark
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israel Justice Ministry official told Israeli media that the government is considering taking criminal action against Sephardic chief rabbi for likening a black child born to white parents to a “monkey” in explaining a point of ritual. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef made the comparison earlier this month during a Saturday evening lecture,…
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News That whites-only, no Jews allowed Arkansas community is legal, says state’s attorney general. How?
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Film & TV How Jon Stewart evolved on Israel — at least on ‘The Daily Show’
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Opinion I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel
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Fast Forward American Jewish Committee donates $25K to Gaza church damaged by Israeli strike
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Fast Forward Jews prefer Mamdani to other NYC mayoral candidates but worry about their safety under him, poll finds
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Fast Forward Novelist David Grossman says Israeli is committing ‘genocide’ in Gaza, joining a rising chorus
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Fast Forward New Trump policy letting federal employees proselytize at work references tefillin
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