This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
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Fast Forward Reconstructionists May Lift Ban on Intermarried Rabbis
(JTA) — The Reconstructionist movement is on the cusp of making a historic decision about whether to drop its longstanding ban against intermarried rabbinical school students. If the policy change passes, as most expect, Reconstructionism would become the first of America’s four major Jewish religious denominations to ordain intermarried rabbis. Supporters of the change argue…
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Fast Forward Elio Toaff, Rabbi Who Brought First Pope to Synagogue, Dies at 99
(Reuters) — Elio Toaff, the chief rabbi of Rome for half a century and a pivotal player in Christian-Jewish reconciliation, has died at the age of 99. Toaff, who a spokesman said died on Sunday night, was Rome’s chief rabbi in 1986 when then-Pope John Paul II made the first visit by a Roman Catholic…
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Fast Forward Chief Rabbis Meet Pope on Anti-Semitism — 50 Years After Vatican II
A delegation of chief rabbis from Europe travelled to the Vatican for a meeting with Pope Francis about anti-Semitism. After meeting Monday with the delegation of 10 rabbis representing the Conference of European Rabbis, Pope Francis is scheduled to meet privately with the chief rabbi of France, Haim Korsia, who is a prominent promoter of…
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Fast Forward Rabbi Barry Freundel’s Wife Speaks for First Time Since Mikveh-Peep Arrest
The estranged wife of Rabbi Barry Freundel, who pleaded guilty to secretly videotaping women in his Orthodox synagogue’s mikvah, spoke publicly for the first time since his arrest in October. Sharon Freundel delivered a lecture last week at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School study center in Rockville, Md., titled “Post-Traumatic Stress Responses in…
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Opinion When We Include Rabbis With Disabilities, Everyone Wins
Eytan Yammer, William Tepper, Carnie Shalom Rose We expect a lot of our rabbis and most of them do their best to deliver. They head our congregations and often become public faces of the community. They are dedicated to the physical and spiritual wellbeing of their members and can be exemplars of service. But some…
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Fast Forward Italian Chief Rabbi’s Parents Survive Tunisia Museum Rampage
Two Italian Jewish tourists survived the terrorist attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunisia. Alberto Di Porto, 71, and Anna Di Porto, 60, of Rome both managed to escape the shooting attack Wednesday in the capital city of Tunisia by gunmen wearing what appeared to be military uniforms which, according to reports at press time,…
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Fast Forward Reform Rabbis Name Denise Eger as First LGBT Chief
The Central Conference of American Rabbis, the rabbinical arm of the Reform movement, installed its first openly gay president, Rabbi Denise Eger. Eger, 55, was inaugurated on Monday morning at the CCAR’s annual convention in Philadelphia. She succeeds Richard Block. The founding rabbi of the Kol Ami synagogue in Los Angeles, Eger has been on…
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Life Letting Women In the Kitchen
Avivit Ravia, one of two female kosher supervisors for Hashgacha Pratit, visits Carousela restaurant. Photograph by Naomi Zeveloff. There is a black and white photograph that my grandmother took of my great-grandmother hanging in my mother’s house and in the houses of all of my great-grandmother’s descendants. In it, my great-grandmother is standing at her…
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