Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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Fast Forward Congregation Beth Elohim Names Rachel Timoner as Senior Rabbi
Rachel Timoner, a trailblazing Los Angeles rabbi, has been tapped as senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim, replacing Andy Bachman at the helm of the prominent Brooklyn Reform synagogue, the Forward has learned. “What comes next is an exciting chapter in the long, esteemed, and ever-unfolding history of Congregation Beth Elohim,” Timoner said in an…
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Fast Forward Did Rabbi Molest Baltimore Girl’s Sisters Too?
New details have reportedly emerged in the case of an Ohio rabbi accused of sexually abusing a Jewish Baltimore girl. Although his seminary rabbi called Rabbi Frederick Karp a “very fine young man,” the Baltimore Jewish Times reports he is accused of molesting a girl who is now 12 for five years — and her…
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Fast Forward Cleveland Rabbi Accused of Sexually Abusing Baltimore Girl
An Ohio rabbi charged with sexually abusing a Maryland girl was ordered held on $500,000 bail and to turn in his passport, officials in Baltimore said on Thursday. The rabbi, 50-year-old Frederick Karp, was charged Wednesday with sexually abusing the minor between July 2009 and December 2014 while visiting with her family in Baltimore. Karp…
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Fast Forward Orthodox Rabbi Martin Wolmark Pleads Guilty in Get Divorce Extortion Scheme
An Orthodox Jewish rabbi pleaded guilty on Wednesday to playing a role in a scheme to kidnap Jewish men and force them to grant divorces to their unhappy wives, said federal authorities in New Jersey. Martin Wolmark, 56, pleaded guilty to conspiring to travel to New Jersey to coerce a man to give his wife…
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Fast Forward Driver Who Killed Princeton Rabbi James Diamond Acquitted in Crash
The driver of the car that killed Rabbi James Diamond, the retired director of Princeton University’s Center for Jewish Life, was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Eric Maltz, 22, had faced up to 30 years in prison on charges of aggravated manslaughter, assault by auto and death by auto , according to the…
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News Jewish Activists Struggle for Right Tone on Racism After Murders of Police Officers
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum was observing the Sabbath on December 20 when New York police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were shot and killed in their patrol car in Brooklyn by 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who then took his own life. After sundown, Kleinbaum, who leads New York’s Congregation Beit Simchat Torah and has been an…
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News Did Rabbi Barry Freundel Treat Mikveh Like ‘Car Wash’ To Peep on Women?
Two new lawsuits aim to hold Modern Orthodoxy’s largest rabbinic organization responsible in the Rabbi Barry Freundel mikvah-peeping scandal. Both lawsuits allege that the Rabbinical Council of America and Freundel’s own synagogue were aware of inappropriate conduct by Freundel prior to the discovery that he was using a hidden camera to view women as they…
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Fast Forward Orthodox Rabbinic Group Sued in Barry Freundel Mikveh Peeping Case
A lawsuit arising out of allegations of voyeurism at a Washington D.C. ritual bath added the Rabbinical Council of America as a defendant. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month by a third-year student at Georgetown University’s law school, initially named as defendants Rabbi Barry Freundel’s Washington synagogue, Kesher Israel, the adjacent mikvah and her own…
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