Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
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Opinion How Could We Have Trusted Rabbi Barry Freundel?
Now that Rabbi Barry Freundel has pleaded guilty to peeping at 52 women while they went to the mikveh — prosecutors say he spied on 100 more women, but outside the statute of limitations — we finally can take off the qualifiers and accept that he is guilty. And that means we can begin some…
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Fast Forward Israel Chief Rabbi Vows To Defy Conversion Law
One of Israel’s two chief rabbis said he would not recognize conversions performed by municipal rabbis despite a government directive validating them. A recording of Yitzhak Yosef vowing to block the conversions was published Wednesday on the website kikar.co.il. The Sephardic chief rabbi said he would withhold his signature, which is still required to complete…
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Fast Forward ‘Get-Extort’ Rabbis Caught on Tape Plotting To Beat Reluctant Husbands
(Reuters) — An undercover FBI agent testified on Thursday in a case involving three Orthodox Jewish rabbis in New Jersey accused of kidnapping and beating husbands to force them to grant divorces under Jewish law to their wives. Special Agent Jessica Weisman, who went by the name Rachel Marconi during the operation, said she weaved a…
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News French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia Pushes Back on Israel Immigration Call
France’s chief rabbi rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suggestion that European Jews should flee to Israel. “France without Jews is not France,” Rabbi Haim Korsia said, speaking at a press conference after a February 19 event with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio at the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan. “[Netanyahu’s] job is…
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Fast Forward Rabbi Barry Freundel Pleads Guilty to Peeping on 52 Women in Mikveh
Rabbi Barry Freundel, the former spiritual leader at a prominent Washington synagogue, has pleaded guilty to 52 counts of peeping on naked women in the mikveh, several news outlets reported. Freundel admitted using three different hidden cameras to capture different naked women in the ritual bath from different angles. “Guilty,” Freundel, a bearded figure wearing…
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News Where Are All The Non-Orthodox Rabbis?
Lev Meirowitz Nelson grew up at a Conservative Jewish day school and a Conservative synagogue. When he decided to apply for rabbinical school, however, he didn’t even consider a Conservative seminary. Instead, Nelson applied to Hebrew College, the new, progressive, nondenominational seminary in Boston, where he was ordained in 2013. It’s a path that more…
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Life Inspiring ‘Em Way Down in Dixie
It’s easy to look at the struggle for justice in the Deep South through the lens of Hollywood dramas like ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ or ‘Selma.’ Things are a bit trickier when the battles are real — but that’s exactly what Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar faces every day at Temple B’nai Sholom in Huntsville, Alabama. Whether it’s…
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Fast Forward Mikveh-Peep Rabbi Barry Freundel Secretly Videotaped at Least 150 Women, Prosecutors Say
Rabbi Barry Freundel secretly videotaped at least 150 women in the mikveh at his prominent Washington D.C. synagogue, prosectors reportedly told a meeting of alleged victims. The disgraced Orthodox cleric has been criminally charged with peeping on six naked women in the ritual bath at Kesher Israel. But prosecutors said the number of victims is…
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