Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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Fast Forward Los Angeles Rabbis Call for Civility at Western Wall Services
As the new Jewish calendar month approaches, attention has once again shifted to the Western Wall and to the planned prayer service by Women of the Wall. Haredi activists in Jerusalem have already called for mass demonstrations on Sunday against the planned women’s prayer and Torah reading at the Wall, marking Rosh Chodesh, the first…
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Fast Forward Rabbi Steven Greenberg Talks About Being Orthodox and Gay
Amalia, two and a half years old, has an abundance of self-confidence and a winning smile. Her parents, Orthodox rabbi Steven Greenberg, 57, and actor and opera singer Steven Goldstein, wed last year in a civil ceremony in New York, while holding the toddler in their arms. A few weeks ago, Greenberg and his family…
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Fast Forward Chicago Chabad Rabbi Arrested for Sexually Assaulting 15-Year-Old Boy
Chicago Rabbi Larry Dudovitz was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2006. Dudovitz, 45, was arrested Saturday, the Chicago Tribune reported, and is being held on $100,000 bail. Dudovitz, who is also known by his Hebrew name Aryeh, is a follower of the late Chabad leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson and…
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Israel News Israel Chips Away at Orthodox Monopoly on Marriage
The Israeli government has taken a major step in its effort to weaken Haredi control over marriages within the country’s mainstream population. Under a landmark reform, announced by the Ministry of Religious Services on May 19, local marriage registrars affiliated with the government-sponsored Chief Rabbinate will no longer have an exclusive monopoly over registering the…
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Fast Forward Unholy Alliances Grow in Israel Chief Rabbi Fight
Heading the agenda at the joint Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu faction’s weekly meeting was the election of Israel’s new chief rabbis, slated for next month (the election is carried out among a large group of rabbis and public representatives). Two private bills related to this issue will soon be submitted to the Knesset. The first attempts to…
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Opinion If Rabbis Are Allowed To Intermarry, Get Ready for the Non-Jewish Rabbi
In response to Rabbi Ellen Lippmann’s open letter in these pages to the board of governors of Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion, asking that it reconsider its policy of not ordaining rabbinical students who have non-Jewish spouses or partners, I offer my own open letter to the board: I am writing to urge you…
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Fast Forward Rabbis Demand End of Boy Scouts Gay Ban
More than 500 rabbis and cantors urged the Boy Scouts of America to drop its ban on homosexual members when the youth group’s National Council convenes in Dallas this week. Representatives of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements signed the letter, which was coordinated by the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism and sent to…
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Fast Forward Reform College, Bowing to Pressure, Will Rethink Rabbi Intermarriage Policy
Should the Reform movement ordain intermarried rabbis? Hebrew Union College, which is the seminary of America’s largest Jewish denomination, is considering altering its current policy, which does not allow admission to its rabbinical, cantorial or education schools of applicants who are married to or partnered with non-Jews. A growing chorus of voices — including newly-ordained…
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