Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
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Opinion The Rebbe’s Big Idea
(JTA) — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, was inarguably the most well-known rabbi since Moses Maimonides. Hundreds of prominent rabbinic figures have lived in the intervening 800 years since Maimonides died. But how many can be named before an audience of Jews from the United States, Israel, France or the former Soviet…
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Fast Forward 4,000 Moscow Jews Fete Russia Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar on 50th Birthday
Approximately 4,000 Jews attended Moscow’s first “Festival of Judaism” which organizers planned as a celebration of the 50th birthday of Chief Russian Rabbi Berel Lazar. The festival was held on June 8, two days after Lazar’s birthday, at the Jewish Museum And Tolerance Center in Moscow and featured 50 stations where staff and volunteers presented…
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Fast Forward Rabbi vs. Rabbi Blackmail Case Rocks South Africa
A bizarre case of blackmail by one rabbi on another has come to light in Cape Town, South Africa, according to the Afrikaans-language newspaper Rapport. The incident came to light at the end of April, when an emissary picked up a bag from Debra Suiza, the wife Rabbi Ruben Suiza, 61, head of Cape Town’s…
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Fast Forward Chabad Rabbi on Scooter Chases Down Burglary Suspect in Palm Beach
A rabbi rode a motor scooter to chased down a suspected burglar after spotting him outside of a Palm Beach, Florida Chabad house. Avrohom Ezagui, a Lubavitcher rabbi, became suspicious when he saw a man holding a bag of valuables, according to The Palm Beach Post. Ezagui assumed the valuables had been taken from Chabad…
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Fast Forward Reform Rabbis Join Push To End North Carolina Same-Sex Marriage Ban
The Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis joined a lawsuit against North Carolina’s ban on same-sex marriages. The lawsuit, which was filed April 28 by the United Church of Christ and several same-sex couples, alleges that North Carolina’s Amendment One and other state laws make it illegal for clergy to officiate at a same-sex…
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News French Chief Rabbi Rocked by $120K Orthodox Divorce Shakedown Video
(JTA) — A month ago, Michel Gugenheim seemed to have succeeded in helping France’s rabbinate recover from the scandal that ended the tenure of its previous chief rabbi. One of France’s two interim chief rabbis and the president of the Paris rabbinic court, Gugenheim had helped advance an ambitious restructuring plan to address redundancies within French…
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The Schmooze The ‘Jeopardy’ Rabbi
(JTA) — Sari Laufer isn’t allowed to say how well she did on the TV quiz show “Jeopardy” until the first episode featuring her airs Wednesday night June 11. One thing the 35-year-old Reform rabbi will share, however, is that she was “really determined” to answer correctly the one Jewish question that arose during the…
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Opinion Will Reuven Rivlin Call ‘Em Reform ‘Rabbis’?
Getty Images ()TA) — Will he refer to Reform rabbis as rabbis? We still don’t know. Reuven Rivlin, Israel’s front-runner in this week’s presidential election, has signaled recently that should he be elected, his goal will be to embrace non-Orthodox Jewish communities rather than antagonize them. Rivlin got a boost in the race on Saturday…
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News No Jews allowed: White supremacists are building a segregated community in Arkansas, but is it legal?
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Opinion Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go
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News What a Mayor Mamdani would mean for New York Jews
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Fast Forward Mamdani tells Colbert — and a national audience — why NYC Jews shouldn’t fear him as mayor
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Fast Forward Danish man was helping Iran plan attacks on Jewish targets in Berlin, police say
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News Zohran Mamdani has represented Astoria’s Jews for 4 years. What do they think of him?
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Fast Forward State Dept. revokes visas for Bob Vylan following ‘death to the IDF’ chants at Glastonbury
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Fast Forward Netanyahu set to visit White House as Trump pushes Gaza ceasefire negotiations
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