This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
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Fast Forward Chief Rabbis Promise Conversion Standards — Vow To Count Ivanka Trump as Jewish
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Chief Rabbinate committed to creating standards for recognizing which Diaspora rabbis it trusts to handle Jewish conversions. The Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis announced separately Wednesday afternoon that they would convene a meeting next week with the Chief Rabbinate Council and the Supreme Rabbinical Court to determine the standards. The conversion…
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Culture On Cult German Show, Real Rabbi Officiates TV Bar Mitzvah
If you walk through a German-speaking town next Sunday night, the odds are that the streets will literally be empty as people stay at home to watch a bar mitzvah on TV. For Germans and Austrians like me, “Tatort” (“Crime Scene”) is the holy grail of television. It’s the German equivalent of “Game of Thrones,”…
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News ‘Alt Right’ Leader Ties White Supremacy to Zionism — Leaves Rabbi Speechless
A prominent leader of the “alt-right” left a Hillel rabbi speechless when he drew a direct parallel between white supremacy and Zionism — igniting debate on social media about whether such a comparison has any validity. Richard Spencer, who leads the white nationalist National Policy Institute, appeared at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas on…
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The Schmooze WATCH: When 4,000 Rabbis Epically Fail To Stand Still for the #MannequinChallenge
4,000 rabbis attempted the #MannequinChallenge in Brooklyn, NY this week — to varying degrees of success. For those who’ve missed this whole viral phenomenon, the challenge involves a group of people standing frozen in one position while a camera pans across the scene. The rabbis, gathered together for the annual Chabad-Lubavitch conference, stood in a…
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Fast Forward Rabbi Says Couples Can’t Live Together If Marriage Licenses Destroyed by Wildfires
JERUSALEM — The chief rabbi of an area affected by the wildfires that cut across Israel said couples whose marriage licenses were destroyed in the blazes cannot live together until they draw up a new one. Rabbi Mordechai Abramovski of Zichron Yaakov said in an interview with the haredi Orthodox news website Kikar HaShabbat that…
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Fast Forward IDF Chief Rabbi Nominee Says He Never Excused Wartime Rape
JERUSALEM — The nominee for chief rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces said in a deposition that he never believed rape during wartime is acceptable. Rabbi Col. Eyal Karim submitted a deposition on Wednesday to the Supreme Court, which had suspended his appointment and ordered him to clarify comments he had made a decade earlier that…
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Fast Forward How Are Rabbis Consoling Congregants Following Trump’s Triumph?
How are rabbis communicating with their congregants about an election whose result has left many of them terrified? Based on his campaign statements and conduct, many see Donald Trump’s ascension to the White House not as a disappointment or even a bitter defeat, but as a mortal threat: to constitutional protections; to a society based…
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Fast Forward Conservative Movement Rabbis Circulate Pre-Election Prayer
— The international association of Conservative rabbis released a prayer “in anticipation of a U.S. election.” The prayer, which calls on readers to consider “all that is at stake in this election,” was written by the Rabbinical Assembly’s executive vice president, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld. “Help us to recognize the gift of our vibrant and open…
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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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Film & TV For ill and for good, this ‘Wicked’ song has become ubiquitous
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News As young Jews move away from Israel, Jewish leaders are reluctant to change their approach
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