Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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Fast Forward Prominent Orthodox Rabbi Condemns Vaccines as a ‘Hoax’
One of the country’s most prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis has condemned vaccines as a “hoax” in an interview with a local Jewish newspaper. “I see vaccinations as the problem,” Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky told the Baltimore Jewish Times in a story published in late August. “It’s a hoax. Even the Salk [polio] vaccine is a hoax. It’s…
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Fast Forward Israeli Rabbi Fleeing Charges of Sex Crimes Arrested Near Amsterdam
A well-known Israeli rabbi who fled the country after being accused of sex crimes was arrested near Amsterdam. Eliezer Berland, 77, was detained by police at Schiphol Airport, Het Parool daily reported. The founder of the Shuvu Bonim religious seminary in Israel, Berland, a member of the Breslov Hasidic sect, fled to Morocco last year…
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Fast Forward Jewish Groups Launch Fair Trade Network, Support Communal Social Justice Efforts
A new partnership has launched to enable the purchase of kosher “fair trade” coffee, tea and chocolate while supporting Jewish communal efforts on human trafficking and worker justice. The Jewish Fair Trade Partnership allows individuals and Jewish institutions like synagogues to purchase fair trade products at wholesale prices while supporting Equal Exchange, Fair Trade Judaica…
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Fast Forward Russian Officials Order Deportation of Chief Rabbi of Omsk
The chief rabbi of Omsk in southern Siberia, Asher Krichevsky, was ordered deported by Russian officials, according to Russian media reports. Krichevsky, 36, was told Tuesday that he and his family — a wife and six children — have 15 days to leave Russia. The rabbi, who has Israeli citizenship, has worked in Russia as…
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Fast Forward Polish City Marks First Rabbinical Ordination Since World War II
In the city’s first rabbinic ordination since before World War II, four rabbis and three cantors were ordained at a ceremony in the White Stork synagogue in Wroclaw, Poland. Germany’s foreign minister and other dignitaries attended the ceremony Tuesday. The new clergy graduated from the Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam, Germany, a Reform rabbinic seminary…
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News Prague Chief Rabbi Quits Amid Literary Sensation — and Whiff of Scandal
(JTA) — When the novel “Altschul’s Method” hit the shelves in Czech bookstores this March, it was hailed as a brilliant political and psychological thriller combining elements of science fiction, alternate history and Jewish mysticism. But it became a true literary sensation when it was revealed a week later that the book’s supposed author, Chaim…
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Fast Forward Miami Jews Fret Over Security After Rabbi’s Murder
The streets of North Miami Beach look different since the murder of Rabbi Joseph Raksin. At Northeast 175th Street and 8th Court, in the heavily Orthodox neighborhood where he was killed, a memorial of candles is arranged in a Star of David that the community keeps lit. Police officers have stepped up their patrols, filling…
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Fast Forward Man Wrongly Convicted of New York City Rabbi’s Murder Gets $10M Settlement
A man who was wrongly convicted of the 1994 murder of a New York City rabbi and spent 16 years in prison received a $10 million settlement from the city. Jabbar Collins, 42, reached the settlement following three years of litigation that came after a judge exonerated him in 2010, the New York Times reported…
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News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
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Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
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Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
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Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In Case You Missed It
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Theater The ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ revival has us wondering — where are all the Jewish Shelley Levenes?
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Books From an Italian Holocaust survivor, a Kafkaesque nightmare of imprisonment under fascism
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Film & TV Why Robby said the Shema on ‘The Pitt’
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Yiddish World Children taking part in a Seder while hiding from the Nazis
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