Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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Fast Forward Rabbi Freundel Conversions Are Valid, Israeli Chief Rabbinate Says
The Israeli Chief Rabbinate said it will recognize all past conversions performed by Rabbi Barry Freundel, the Washington rabbi charged with voyeurism. On Tuesday, the Rabbinate clarified that it was joining the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America in affirming the validity of the conversions, a day after the Rabbinate said it would be examining their…
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News Rabbis Barry Freundel and Leib Tropper Ensnared in Scandals Tied to Conversions
A prominent Orthodox rabbi is disgraced, accused of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior towards converts. That may sound like the scandal now toppling Barry Freundel, the prominent Washington, D.C. rabbi who pled not guilty on October 15 to allegations that he secretly videotaped women showering in the antechamber of his synagogue’s mikveh, or ritual bath….
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Opinion Tale of Two Sermons on Israel
After a brutal, confusing summer of fighting between Israel and Hamas, many American rabbis were supposedly skittish about talking about Israel from the pulpit. Why, even The New York Times reported on this rabbinic reluctance: “Debate among Jews about Israel is nothing new, but some say the friction is now fire,” Laurie Goodstein wrote on…
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Fast Forward Rabbi Barry Freundel Pleads Not Guilty To Taping 6 Women in Mikveh
Rabbi Barry Freundel recorded secret videos of at least six women women showering at the mikvah in his synagogue, according to allegations filed by authorities at his arraignment on Wednesday afternoon. Freundel, 62, pleaded not guilty to a charge of voyeurism, a misdemeanor, and was freed without bond. The details from the charging documents were…
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Fast Forward Rabbi Barry Freundel, Accused in Mikveh Peeping, Seemed ‘Aloof’ to Washington Synagogue
(JTA) — Rabbi Barry Freundel was known to the Washington Jewish community as a champion of moral rectitude. But on Tuesday, the spiritual leader of Kesher Israel congregation for the past 25 years, was charged with the most intimate of transgressions: voyeurism. Freundel, 62, was taken away Tuesday in handcuffs, after uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives…
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News Orthodox Group Probed Alleged ‘Mikveh Peep’ Rabbi Barry Freundel
A national Orthodox rabbinic association recently investigated allegations of impropriety made against the rabbi accused of videotaping women at his mikvah, the Forward has learned. Rabbi Barry Freundel, spiritual leader of the Washington, D.C. congregation Kesher Israel, will be charged with voyeurism after a witness allegedly saw him installing a hidden camera above a shower…
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News 20 Rabbis Join Rallies in Ferguson as Anger Keeps Building
Outside the Ferguson police station, under a steady rain, the rabbis were asking the cops to repent. “We repent for the sins of our community, not only for the things we personally did,” Rabbi Jill Jacobs told one officer. “I asked him if he would join me in repenting, and he didn’t really respond.” Two…
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Fast Forward Reform Rabbis Seek To Aid Immigrants Facing Deportation
Reform rabbis are contacting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in an attempt to delay the deportation of undocumented workers. Rabbis Organizing Rabbis partnered with immigration advocacy organizations to ask the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to exercise discretion when deciding whether or not to deport anyone, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the…
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Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
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