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Fast Forward Top Rabbi Arrested on Rape Charge as He Tries To Flee
Israeli police officers arrested at Ben Gurion Airport a prominent rabbi who sought to leave the country amid accusations that he committed rape and other sex crimes. The rabbi, whose name was not published in Israeli media but was identified as a yeshiva head from the Safed area who belongs to Modern-Orthodox Zionist circles, was…
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Life The Rosa Parks of Israeli Cemeteries
Susan Ahyed’s long fight for justice, culminating in an Supreme Court victory last week, began with a rather morbid thought. A former New Yorker, Ahyed had been attending an old friend’s funeral in her hometown of Netanya in early 2011, when she suddenly noticed the signs pointing women in one direction and men in the…
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Life In Israel, Love is Not Love
In his characteristically crisp manner, President Barak Obama summed up the recent US Supreme Court decision acknowledging the right of gays to marry: . The Constitution is about individual liberty. And change is possible. Good for you, citizens and residents of the United States of America. An important job, well done. And while this Constitutional…
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Fast Forward Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam Steps Down
The chief rabbi of Amsterdam, who has seen his authority diminished in recent years, said he will resign in September. Aryeh Ralbag, a New York native who has held the nonsalaried position since 2005, cited his “inability to combine other work in the United States and Israel with tasks in Amsterdam,” according to a report…
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Fast Forward Avi Weiss Quits Rabbinic Group in Flap Over School
Rabbi Avi Weiss is quitting the Rabbinical Council of America to protest its failure to admit as members rabbis whose sole ordination is from the rabbinical school he founded. The RCA, the main association of modern Orthodox rabbis in America, has yet to grant membership to rabbis who have been ordained only from Yeshivat Chovevei…
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Fast Forward Chabad Rabbi’s Car Torched in Los Angeles
A car belonging to a Chabad rabbi in Los Angeles was set on fire, burning prayer books and tefillin inside. Security cameras at the Chabad of Mt. Oympus, located in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood, captured footage of two people vandalizing the car at about 2 a.m. June 24, the Jewish Journal reported. Nothing was stolen…
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Fast Forward Shlomo Riskin Wins New 5-Year Term as Chief Rabbi
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin’s term as chief rabbi of Efrat reportedly has been extended by the Council of the Chief Rabbinate for five more years. The Council’s hearing was held Monday. Riskin turned 75 last month, the age at which municipal rabbis are required to retire unless their tenure is extended five more years, as is…
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Fast Forward Israelis Object to Orthodox-Only Rabbi Rules: Poll
More than two-thirds of Israelis object to the removal of a Conservative rabbi from a bar mitzvah ceremony for disabled children intended to take place at the Israeli president’s residence. The ceremony has been run for 20 years by the Conservative movement and was scheduled to take place at the end of June. It was…
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