This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
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Opinion Conversion Committee Helps Steer Path for Orthodoxy
I have a confession: I am a convert regarding conversions. That’s the stark realization I reached as chairman of the Rabbinical Council of America’s recent conversion review committee. The committee was established last fall to review the RCA’s Geirus Policies and Standards system, the network of regional Orthodox conversion courts operating under the aegis of…
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Fast Forward Orthodox Rabbis Plan Conversion Reform After Barry Freundel Scandal
(JTA) — After facing criticism for its handling of inappropriate behavior by a convert-supervising rabbi who turned out to be a mikvah-peeping voyeur, the country’s main centrist Orthodox rabbinical group has released key guidelines aimed at preventing abuses during the conversion process. The Rabbinical Council of America is recommending that would-be converts be given a…
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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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News DNA test kits spark a surge of online conversions to Judaism in the U.S.
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News As young Jews move away from Israel, Jewish leaders are reluctant to change their approach
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Fast Forward Palestinian restaurant opening near Columbia names its location to honor girl killed in Gaza, campus protesters
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