Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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Opinion After Orthodox-Only Mikveh Law, Time To Rein In the Israeli Rabbinate
As a woman who underwent Orthodox conversion, I was livid when I read about the controversial Israeli bill that was formally passed into law July 25. The bill allows local Orthodox rabbinates to ban non-Orthodox conversions in publicly funded mikvehs. The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party may have introduced this piece of legislation, but in…
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Fast Forward 88-Year-Old Rabbi Injured at Coast Guard Ceremony Can Sue Government
A federal court ruling will allow an 88-year-old New York rabbi to proceed with a negligence lawsuit against the U.S. government. Judge Margo Brodie of the Brooklyn District Court struck down the federal government’s request for summary judgment in the case of Rabbi William Kloner, who was seriously injured at a 2010 Coast Guard retirement…
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Community Channeling The Power of Faith to End Gun Violence
Rabbis are part of a growing group of American Faith Leaders who have witnessed with anguish our communities being devastated by suicides, homicides, unintentional shootings, and mass shootings. We have consoled families and buried their loved ones. We have seen how the most vulnerable and marginalized members of our society are disproportionately affected by gun…
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Fast Forward After Conversion Controversy, Does Israeli Rabbinate Need Tweak — or a Revolution?
(JTA) — Three months after Israel’s Chief Rabbinate rejected his authority to perform conversions, one of America’s most prominent Modern Orthodox rabbis joined with Natan Sharansky to advance a message: The rabbinate needs to become more open. But not too much more. A widely respected rabbi in New York’s Orthodox community, Haskel Lookstein saw his credentials…
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Fast Forward 200 Protest Rejection of Conversion by Rabbi Haskel Lookstein
JERUSALEM — About 200 demonstrators protested next to the offices of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate as a hearing took place about the legitimacy of a conversion conducted by the prominent American Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein. On Wednesday, the Supreme Rabbinical Court heard the appeal of a case in which a rabbinical court in Petach Tikvah…
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Fast Forward 257 Newly Minted Chabad Rabbis Celebrate Ordination
A group of 257 rabbinical school graduates gathered at the Chabad movement’s Rabbinical College of America outside of Morristown, New Jersey. The rabbis, who received their rabbinic ordinations between 2012 and this year, took part in the celebratory ceremony on Sunday. This year’s cohort is slightly smaller than its largest ever group of 280, which…
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News Israeli Rabbinical Court Rejects Rabbi Who Converted Ivanka Trump
An Israeli rabbinical court did not accept a conversion by an Orthodox rabbi who also helped Ivanka Trump become Jewish. In the latest case exemplifying the tension between Israel’s rabbinate and Orthodox groups in the Diaspora, a religious court prevented the marriage of an Israeli man and an American woman, who converted under a well-respected…
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News 5 Must-Know Facts About New York Police Rabbi Alvin Kass
An unknown assailant attacked Rabbi Alvin Kass, the respected chief chaplain of the New York City Police Department, yesterday while the rabbi was on his morning power walk along Riverside Boulevard. Though the attacker knocked him to the ground, Kass, who is in his eighties, suffered no serious injuries. The Post has reported that Kass…
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