Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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Life Five Events in 2015 That Changed Jewish Women
It’s been a big year for Jewish women. Comic Amy Schumer catapulted to super stardom with “Trainwreck,” and drew our attention to the way women are treated in Hollywood; Tamar Epstein, whose fight to receive a religious divorce from her husband Aharon Friedman made national headlines, remarried despite never receiving a get; and Emma Sulkowicz…
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Fast Forward Rabbis Tell Israeli Mom: You’re Not Jewish — After 30 Years
An Israeli mother whom a rabbinical court declared to be not Jewish said in an appeal that the judges failed to satisfactorily explain their unusual decision. Sarit Azoulay’s appeal, which she filed this month with the High Rabbinical Court, concerns a 2012 ruling by the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court that nullified her mother’s 1983 conversion to…
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Life Israel’s Voiding of Conversions Should Worry Us All
For at least the past seven years or so, the State of Israel has been subjecting converts to intense examinations and inquiries regarding the level of their religious observance. When a convert requests that a rabbinic court administer a get in the context of an amicable divorce, rabbinic judges will surreptitiously cross-examine the convert: Did…
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Life A New, Sophisticated Haredi View on Gender
Recent debates about women and the Orthodox rabbinate yielded a range of interesting, impassioned and also banal observations by various Jewish professionals and laypeople. Although sociological and legal arguments abound, a broader philosophical discussion of the nature of gender roles within Judaism is lacking. The assumption in these debates seems to be that the challenge…
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News What This French Rabbi Wants You to Know About the Paris Attacks
Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur leads a congregation belonging to the Mouvement Juif Liberal de France (Liberal Jewish Movement of France). As France’s third female rabbi, she has long believed in the need for Jews to constantly re-evaluate what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. In a November 17 email exchange with the Forward…
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Life Why I Was Denied the Right to Mourn My Late Mother
“You cannot say Kaddish.” Had those words had been said with sympathy, or at least respect for my loss, I wouldn’t be writing this. On my first morning in Budapest, October 7, the 24th day of Tishrei, I saw an old man standing in a doorway of the Talmud-Torah behind the Dohany Street Synagogue. I…
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Opinion On Women Rabbis, We All Talk Past Each Other. Here’s Why.
Since the Rabbinical Council of America voted to pass a resolution opposing any sort of ordination for women in the Orthodox world, Jews of all denominations have been talking past each other. For some, the granting of ordination to women and their hiring as clergy are developments not only long overdue, but also sensible, fair…
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Fast Forward Chief Rabbi’s Mausoleum Torched in Ukraine
A Jewish mausoleum in western Ukraine burned down in what a human rights group said may have been a deliberate arson attack connected with a dispute over a commemoration project. The gravesite of Hillel Lichtenstein, a 19th century Jewish sage and former chief rabbi of the Ukrainian city of Kolomyia, was partially destroyed last week…
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News Jewish groups targeted Columbia grad Mahmoud Khalil — then ICE arrested him
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Fast Forward As ICE targets a pro-Palestinian activist, some Jews are asking if this is the fight against antisemitism they signed up for
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Fast Forward American Jewish Committee says it’s ‘appalled’ by Mahmoud Khalil’s views but does not praise his arrest
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Fast Forward Antisemitic terror plot in Australia was fake and staged by a crime boss, police say
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Fast Forward A bagel shop backed out of a Jewish food festival over Israel. Then regret set in.
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