This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
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Fast Forward Australia Capital Gets First Rabbi
The Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth officiated at the inauguration of the first rabbi officially appointed to lead the Jewish community in Australia’s capital. Rabbi Efraim Mirvis was present last week as Rabbi Alon Meltzer became the first rabbi to lead the Australian Capital Territory’s National Jewish Memorial Center. Meltzer, a 26-year-old from New Zealand,…
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Fast Forward Swedish Rabbi Threatened by Known Anti-Semite
A rabbi and his synagogue in the Swedish city of Gothenburg was threatened in emails that described him as an “accursed child murderer.” The rabbi, who was not named, received the threats via email from a person with a history of threatening the Jewish community of Gothenburg, Daniel Jonas, director of the city’s Jewish community,…
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The Schmooze Justin Bieber Hangs With L.A. Rabbi
Getty Images Pop star Justin Bieber spent three hours meeting with a rabbi in Los Angeles. Bieber on Wednesday visited the Westside Jewish Community Center, the celebrity news website X17.com reported. The singer “is on a spiritual journey,” according to X17, and reportedly has stopped using drugs and gotten rid of his entourage. Bieber reportedly…
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News At Least Six Degrees of Wisdom and Nuttiness
Forward reader David Wexler calls my attention to an article in the October 10 issue of this newspaper about Greg Wall, a saxophone-playing, shofar-blowing, Talmud-teaching rabbi from Norfolk, Connecticut. “In addition to being a Talmud khokhem, or smart man,” the article’s author, Jon Kalish, wrote, “Wall… knows a mainsail from a jib, having taught at…
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News France’s New Chief Rabbi Embraces Reforms
(JTA) — The first thing Haim Korsia did after becoming chief rabbi of France was give his new office a thorough cleaning. Next he redecorated to give the space a more modern look, placing his 30-inch model of a nuclear submarine — a gift from his previous stint as senior military chaplain — amid the volumes…
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Fast Forward Rabbi Barry Freundel Set for Court Date
Rabbi Barry Freundel is expected to appear in a Washington D.C. court today to face charges he used a hidden camera to peep on women in the mikveh of his Orthodox synagogue. The disgraced cleric faces six counts of voyeurism, a misdemeanor, and could face up to six years in prison. Prosecutors might outline any…
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Opinion Rabbis on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Those of us who knew, or thought we knew, Rabbi Barry Freundel — recently arrested for spying on women in the mikveh, with a mountain of evidence suggesting his guilt — are still in shock. As much as I disagreed with many of his halachic positions, I always thought he was one of the good…
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Fast Forward Dutch Chief Rabbi Says Men Sped Car at Him
Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs filed a complaint with police against two men whom he said tried to intimidate him at a gas station. Jacobs, chief rabbi of the Interprovincial Rabbinate for The Netherlands, filed the complaint last week after two men on Nov. 5 drove a BMW car in his direction in a sudden…
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