Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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Fast Forward Only One Chief Rabbi in Israel Under New Knesset Bill
A Knesset committee voted to approve a bill that would create one chief rabbi position instead of the current two. The Knesset Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted Sunday to approve the legislation, proposed by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni of the Hatnua Party, and co-sponsored by Religious Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett and lawmaker Eli Ben-Dahan of…
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News What’s Unnerving About Angela Buchdahl? She Talks About God
(Haaretz) — What has made some people nervous about Angela Buchdahl becoming the senior rabbi at Central Synagogue – one of the two largest Reform synagogues in New York and one of the biggest in the United States – is not that she’s the first Asian-American rabbi. It’s not that she’s a woman or, at…
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Fast Forward Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto Suspected of Bribing Senior Police Officer
(Haaretz) — The Justice Ministry department that investigates police misconduct is investigating the head of one of the police’s most prestigious units on suspicion of taking bribes from Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto and from businessmen who are disciples of the rabbi. The investigative material in the case has been given to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, as well…
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Fast Forward Avi Weiss Gets Green Light From Israel Rabbis To Vouch for Jewishness
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel will accept letters confirming individuals’ Judaism from Avi Weiss, a New York liberal Orthodox rabbi. The Rabbinate sent a letter Wednesday to Weiss’ attorney in Israel, Assaf Benmelech, affirming that it will accept all letters from Weiss confirming the Judaism of couples who want to wed in Israel. In October,…
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Fast Forward Meet Israeli Bureaucrat Who Decides If You Can Get Married — or Not
(JTA) — To be married in Israel, immigrants must prove their Jewish ancestry to the country’s Chief Rabbinate. Couples can solicit a letter from their hometown rabbis or present their parents’ Jewish marriage contracts. Sometimes they even bring a Yiddish-speaking grandmother before a rabbinical court. In the end, every claim has to pass through one…
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Israel News Israeli Rabbis Seek To Learn From American Model of Jewish Community
A group of rabbis studying public speaking, psychology and counseling in New York or London would hardly raise an eyebrow. But here in Israel, the group of 19 rabbis gathered in a seminar room and doing just this is breaking new ground. The rabbis who have been studying these topics in Modi’in want desperately to…
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Fast Forward Portuguese Priest Prompts Protest With Plan To Open Jewish Museum
The rabbi of Porto urged the Catholic Church of Portugal to block a local priest’s plan to open a museum commemorating Jewish presence in the city. Rabbi Daniel Litvak made the appeal in a letter this week to the Patriarchate of Lisbon against a plan promoted by Father Agostinho Jardim Moreira to open The Center…
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Fast Forward Israel Pays 4 Reform Rabbis for First Time
Israeli government money was transferred for the first time to the Reform Movement in Israel to pay the salaries of four community Reform rabbis. The transfer of the more than $86,000 on Wednesday comes 18 months after Israel’s Supreme Court approved an arrangement to enable non-Orthodox rabbis who lead congregations to receive state salaries like…
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Fast Forward Trump just granted asylum to a man who posted ‘Jews are dangerous’
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Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: 9 ייִדן פּרוּוון אַרײַנגנבֿענען ציג פֿאַר אַ קרבן אויפֿן הר־הביתTidbits: 9 Jews try to smuggle sacrificial goat onto Temple Mount
דאָס ציגעלע האָבן זיי באַהאַלטן אין אַן אײַנקויף־זאַק.
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Fast Forward ‘A Shonda’: Eric Adams and Brad Lander trade blows in bitter feud over antisemitism in NYC mayoral race
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Fast Forward South Africa’s chief rabbi supports Donald Trump — but says his refugee program for Afrikaners is a ‘mistake’
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