This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
-
Fast Forward Rabbi Says Synagogue Fired Him For Welcoming Nonwhite Members
The rabbi of a Modern Orthodox synagogue in the New York suburb of Yonkers is filing an anti-discrimination complaint against his own synagogue board, alleging that they punished him for welcoming nonwhite families to the synagogue. Rabbi Rigoberto Emmanuel Vinas filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Lincoln Park Jewish Center, the…
-
Fast Forward Israeli Chief Rabbinate: Supreme Court Lacks Jurisdiction Over Western Wall
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Chief Rabbinate said the country’s Supreme Court lacks the jurisdiction to rule on the “intrareligious” struggle involving egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. In a 166-page brief filed Tuesday with the Supreme Court, the Chief Rabbinate said in part, “The courts are not the appropriate tribunal to decide if Jewish law…
-
Fast Forward Orthodox Rabbinical Group Condemns Trump Over Charlottesville
The largest body of Orthodox rabbis in the United States released a statement on Wednesday condemning President Trump’s continued comparisons between white supremacist marchers and counter-protestors in Charlottesville, Va. “There is no moral comparison,” the president of the Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbi Elazar Muskin, said in a statement. “Failure to unequivocally reject hatred and…
-
Opinion I Am A Rabbi — And My Place Was In Charlottesville
(JTA) — I was in Charlottesville on Saturday. I felt called to go because white supremacy is a hateful ideology that has murdered millions throughout history and continues to kill. I went because my family and ancestors suffered at the hands of anti-Semites throughout history, because I bear their scars on my DNA, because the…
-
Letters The Forward Misunderstood The RCA’s Response to Charlottesville
We accept criticism when warranted. In the case of Avital Chizik Goldschmidt’s “Why Won’t Orthodox Leaders Condemn Trump’s Ties to White Supremacists?” it is not. In that article Ms. Chizik Goldschmidt writes, “The Rabbinical Council of America mourned “violence and bigotry”, but not our leader’s failure to condemn it.” Even though Ms. Chizik Goldschmidt does…
-
News Charlottesville’s Rabbi: I Saw ‘The Hate Walking By’
Rabbi Tom Gutherz had a harrowing weekend as the senior rabbi at Charlottesville’s Congregation Beth Israel, founded in 1882. Holed up in a church across from Emancipation Park, the site of the infamous white supremacist rally, he said the day’s events were unlike anything he had ever seen. “To see the marching, to hear it,…
-
Fast Forward Hebrew Israelite Group Asks: ‘Are We Ready For Female Rabbis?’
When Rabbi Capers Funnye was inaugurated to the role of Chief Rabbi of his Hebrew Israelite community, he laid out dramatic plans. One of his “highest goals” as leader of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis, he said, would be to admit women into the organization’s rabbinical academy, and allow women to serve on the…
-
Fast Forward Chief Rabbi Attacks Jerusalem Pride Ahead Of Event
Jerusalem is holding its gay pride parade today – and predictably not everyone (including the city’s chief rabbi) is happy about it. “It is sad that a couple of days after Tisha B’Av, when masses visited Jerusalem and remembered it being a holy city… [the] essence of this parade is contradicting the trend of Jerusalem…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Exclusive Mahmoud Khalil wants to reassure you
- 2
Culture In 1989, Harold Pinter and Jerry Schatzberg made the perfect Holocaust movie for 2026
- 3
Culture 70 years ago, this Jewish choreographer predicted our epidemic of loneliness and isolation
- 4
Opinion Trump is backed into a corner on Iran. Get ready for him to start blaming Jews
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Hungary is poised to topple an authoritarian leader. American Jews have something to learn
-
Fast Forward 42 Jewish authors slam Jewish Book Council for ‘bias toward centering Israeli and Zionist voices’
-
Fast Forward Temple Israel rabbi criticizes Michigan Senate candidate for ‘offensive’ remarks about attack
-
Culture The Pentagon fears the Vatican’s authority in a battle over Christianity’s power
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
