This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Fast Forward Stephen Miller’s Childhood Rabbi Harshly Denounces Him In Rosh Hashanah Sermon
The childhood rabbi of Stephen Miller denounced the divisive White House aide during Rosh Hashanah services at the synagogue where he once worshipped. Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels devoted much of his High Holidays sermon to a rebuke of Miller for spearheading President Trump’s right-wing attacks on immigrants — and especially his unpopular policy of separating families…
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Culture RFK Jr.’s poems to Olivia Nuzzi are peak cringe — so were King Solomon’s
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News DNA test kits spark a surge of online conversions to Judaism in the U.S.
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Opinion What does Mamdani’s response to synagogue protests mean for Jews? No one will like the answer.
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Opinion More than 25% of Israelis want to leave the country. How did we get here?
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Fast Forward After drawing BDS backlash, progressive Jewish writer Peter Beinart apologizes for speaking at Tel Aviv U
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Culture The gift Tom Stoppard gave to me — and to all who adore him
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Opinion How would Jews fleeing Europe have fared under Trump’s anti-immigration policies?
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