This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
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Fast Forward French Jews Elect Haim Korsia as New Chief Rabbi
The Jewish community of France elected Rabbi Haim Korsia, the French army’s Jewish chaplain, as its new chief rabbi. Korsia, 51, defeated Rabbi Olivier Kaufmann, an interim chief rabbi, in a 131-97 vote on Sunday to win the seven-year term, the French news agency AFP reported. Kaufmann, the head of a French rabbinical school, was…
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Fast Forward South African Rabbi Steps Down Over $4K Blackmail of Other Rabbi
A South African rabbi was jailed and resigned from his synagogue after attempting to blackmail another rabbi. Cape Town Rabbi Bryan Opert stepped down from the Milnerton Hebrew Congregation and was jailed for 48 hours after trying to blackmail Rabbi Ruben Suiza, the longtime head of the city’s Sephardic community, Haaretz reported. The case was…
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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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Fast Forward After Minneapolis shooting, local Jewish service channels a city’s grief and resolve
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Culture ‘The Pitt’ tackled the trauma of the Tree of Life attack. Here’s how survivors of the synagogue shooting reacted to the episode.
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News Why Josh Shapiro’s memoir could complicate a presidential run
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Holy Ground A Millennial rabbi built a synagogue where others have closed. Her maverick ideas are becoming a model.
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