Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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Opinion Who Says Rabbis Must Be Role Models On Intermarriage — Or Anything Else?
Jane Eisner is right to attribute the change in Reconstructionist Rabbinical College’s intermarriage policy to a disagreement about the rabbi’s role in his or her community. But she misses the reason for this disagreement. : “Clergy don’t reflect their congregations. Clergy lead their congregations — and do so not as leaders who bow to the…
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Opinion Why We Shouldn’t Accept Rabbis Who Marry Non-Jews
Does it make a difference to the larger Jewish community that the Reconstructionist movement has made the regrettable decision to admit and ordain intermarried rabbis? Its adherents are miniscule: Only about 1% of American Jews identify with the movement. Cross the continent and you’ll find slightly more than a hundred congregations. The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College…
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Life The Consequences of Israel’s Closed-Door Politics For Women
Last month, the Religious Courts Appointments committee met all day and into the night behind closed doors to determine who will be a dayan, a religious court judge in Israel. The good news for women is that 22 new dayanim will unlock the religious courts where the high number of judicial vacancies kept women from…
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Opinion As Reconstructionists Accept Rabbis With Non-Jewish Partners, Will Reform Jews Follow Suit?
Moved either by a brave spirit or by the notion that widespread intermarriage in the Jewish faith demands this change, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College recently announced that it is revoking its “Non-Jewish Partner” policy, which denied admission to students married to, or in a committed relationship with, a non-Jew. This decision is likely to have…
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Opinion What a Catholic Mom Wants the Pope To Learn from Her Rabbi Daughter
Pope Francis is the darling of many liberal Catholics and the world expects he will make life easier for congregants who have not been following the letter of Church law for some time. But when the pontiff comes to Philadelphia on September 26 and 27 for the World Meeting of Families, with an enormous entourage…
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Fast Forward Barack Obama Tells Rabbis He Plans to Meet with Netanyahu
President Barack Obama told rabbis in a pre-Rosh Hashanah phone call that security talks with Israel had resumed and he hoped to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by early next month. On Thursday, in his annual pre-High Holidays call to the rabbis, Obama said that he was ready to meet with Netanyahu during…
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Fast Forward Were Hebrew Union College Rabbi’s Grandchildren Snatched by Mother?
Los Angeles police are searching for two Jewish brothers who disappeared nearly two weeks ago and are believed to have been abducted by their Taiwanese-American mother. The children’s parents are divorced and live in different cities. The two brothers, Sage Cook, 14, and Isaac Cook, 9, flew on Aug. 28 from their father’s home in…
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Fast Forward Hundreds of Rabbis Sign Petition Against Iran Deal
Hundreds of United States rabbis, from all major Jewish streams, signed a letter urging members of Congress to oppose the Iran nuclear deal, writing that the hope for a good deal “is not yet realized.” The letter, co-authored by Rabbis Kalman Topp of Beth Jacob Congregation in Southern California and Yonah Bookstein of Pico Shul…
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Fast Forward Trump guts Department of Education, slashing office handling antisemitism complaints
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