This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
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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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News Reconstructionists Shake Up Boring Annual Report With Web, Video — and Even a Christian!
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College has released what may be the quirkiest annual report in the mundane history of Jewish annual reports. Instead of the standard-issue PDF, chock full of corny staged photos and tritely colored financial bar graphs, the RRC built its 2015 report into an interactive website that captures the democratic essence of the…
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Fast Forward Israel just quadrupled its PR budget to $730M. Experts say it won’t work.
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Fast Forward A synagogue helped Palestinians raise money for Gaza — and found common ground over falafel
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Fast Forward This Jewish feminist has been the NYC’s sanitation department’s official artist for 50 years. A new movie tells her story.
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Fast Forward House to consider bipartisan resolution condemning Hasan Piker, Candace Owens for antisemitism