Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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Culture My Daughter, the Catholic Rabbi
This is the second spring that two robins became parents in a tight little nest woven on the lintel above our front door. Last year, when the nest came down, all that was left were shards of baby-blue eggs. I stood for a long time, wondering if it is sacrilegious to throw out the remains,…
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Film & TV Is ‘Orange Is the New Black’ Anti-Semitic?
If, unlike me, you didn’t spend your entire weekend binge-watching the new season of “Orange is The New Black,” you may not be aware of the major Jewish narrative arc that has developed at Litchfield Penitentiary. My first reaction was jubilation. And then I started watching. And disappointment hit. Because despite the laughs and the…
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Fast Forward RCA Confirms Expulsion of Rabbi Marc Schneier
The Rabbinic Council of America has confirmed a Forward report that Rabbi Marc Schneier has been expelled from the Orthodox group. “(The RCA executive committee) reviewed the facts presented to it regarding the conduct of Rabbi Marc Schneier and voted to expel him from his membership,” the Orthodox group said in a statement. The statement…
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Life Reining In Our Rabbis
Though appalled, I laughed when I first heard about Rabbi Barry Freundel. How he hid cameras in the mikveh to watch his congregants and conversion protégés undress and prepare for ritual immersion. The image that came to my mind was that of the boy in my third grade class who tried to peek up my…
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Fast Forward Israel’s Chief Rabbi: No Plans to Remove Riskin
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Chief Rabbinate has no intention of removing Efrat Chief Rabbi Shlomo Riskin from his position, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau said. “There has never been any intention to push out Rabbi Riskin,” Lau said Wednesday in remarks at the Meir Harel Yeshiva in Modi’in, where he led a class for retirees….
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News Who’s Investigating Rabbis Who Cross the Line?
A rabbi who surfs the Internet for transsexual escorts stands trial for borrowing and stealing almost $500,000 from his congregation to pay off an extortionist. Another rabbi is sentenced to more than six years in jail for videotaping naked women in his synagogue’s ritual bath. A third rabbi is being told to leave his pulpit…
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Fast Forward Sauna Rabbi’s Riverdale Congregation Moves to Oust Him
The Riverdale Jewish Center reportedly is seeking to get rid of Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, whose habit of inviting young males to join him for naked heart-to-heart talks in the sauna was the subject of a recent article in The New York Times. In a meeting Monday night, the board of directors of Rosenblatt’s Orthodox synagogue…
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News Marc Schneier Booted From Rabbinic Group Over Affair
Rabbi Marc Schneier, the spiritual leader of a tony congregation in the Hamptons, has been expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America, the Forward has learned. The five times married Schneier was quietly expelled from the Orthodox rabbinical group earlier this year in relation to allegations, in 2010, that he had an extramarital affair with…
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