Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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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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Fast Forward Masked Men Threaten To Torch Ukraine Chief Rabbi’s Home
Armed, masked men threatened to burn down the house of one of Ukraine’s chief rabbis, a spokeswoman from his office said. The incident outside the Kiev-area residence of Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich occurred on May 23 at 1:30 a.m., Inna Yoffe, the executive director of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, told Ukrainian media last week….
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News Storybook Boston Suburb of Sharon Shaken by Rabbi Barry Starr Hush Money Sex Scandal
Rabbi Miriam Spitzer did not have to mention him by name. The class of sixth graders at Temple Israel, in Sharon, Massachusetts, knew exactly whom Spitzer was thinking of when she dedicated that day’s lesson to Elisha ben Abuyah, a revered rabbi who became a heretic. “The lesson was that the Torah taught [by Abuyah]…
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