This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
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News Rabbi Performs Controversial Metzitzah B’Peh Circumcision Rite — Law or No
After cutting off the infant’s foreskin, Rabbi Avrohom Cohn leaned down toward the baby boy who was cradled on a white pillow atop his grandfather’s knee. Standing fully over the child, with his back to the dozens of immaculately dressed guests at the Syrian Jewish gathering in Brooklyn, it was impossible to see what Cohn…
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Opinion Partnership Minyan and the Egalitarian Threat
Mainstream Orthodoxy has been taking pains to publicize its disapproval of partnership minyanim, Orthodox prayer groups where women lead some of the prayers and read from the Torah. Yeshiva University threatened to withhold ordination of a graduating student who held a partnership minyan in his home. Large, leading Orthodox institutions like the Orthodox Union and…
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Life Single Mother and Rabbi
Courtesy of Diva Communications// Rabbi Felicia Sol with her children The new film, “All of the Above,”, explores what happens when a single, Jewish clergy member wants to become a mother. The documentary, produced by Diva Communications, features interviews with Rabbi Lisa Gelber, an associate dean, at the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Rabbinical School, Rabbi Julie…
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News Rena Arshinoff, Nurse and Rabbi, Guides Couple Through Delivery of Stillborn Child
In November 2012, Renan Levine and Mira Victoria Perry were eagerly awaiting the birth of their second child. Two days before the scheduled C-section, the Toronto couple received the news expectant parents dread most: their child had died in utero. With no family in the area and their synagogue rabbi out of town, the couple…
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Fast Forward Reality TV Star Alin Levy Speaks Out on Bizarre Conversion Fight
An Israeli television celebrity said the Chief Rabbinate is refusing to convert her to Judaism because of her acting career. Alin Levy, a 24-year-old reality TV celebrity whose Ukraine-born mother is Christian and whose father is Jewish, discussed her situation with Israel’s Channel 10 in an interview that aired earlier this week. She said she…
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Fast Forward Conversion Reform Bill Passes Knesset Committee
A bill that would allow local rabbis to oversee conversions to Judaism in Israel passed a Knesset committee. The controversial bill passed the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Wednesday by a vote of 7 to 4. The bill will now return to the Knesset plenum for its second and third readings, which likely will…
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Israel News Reality TV Star’s Conversion Plight Reveals Orthodox Rabbinate’s Kafkaesque Grip
(Haaretz) — The struggle against the ultra-Orthodox grip on Israel’s Chief Rabbinate in issues of personal status in Israel has a new, and very attractive, poster girl. Alin Levy, an Israeli reality TV star, says she has been told she cannot complete the process of converting to Judaism because she is an actress. Levy blasted…
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Opinion Rabbi’s Meditation Lessons Changed My Life
Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg On those very rare occasions when I start to get anxious or freak out or dive down the rabbit hole of “What if this bad thing happens and then this and then this?” I hear the lilting voice of Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg in my head, telling me to breathe and…
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Culture RFK Jr.’s poems to Olivia Nuzzi are peak cringe — so were King Solomon’s
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News As young Jews move away from Israel, Jewish leaders are reluctant to change their approach
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Film & TV For ill and for good, this ‘Wicked’ song has become ubiquitous
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News DNA test kits spark a surge of online conversions to Judaism in the U.S.
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