This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
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Fast Forward Pamela Geller’s Invitation to Speak in Toronto Angers Board of Rabbis
The Toronto Board of Rabbis criticized the Jewish Defense League of Canada for inviting Islam critic Pamela Geller to speak in the city. The statement was issued just prior to Geller’s speaking engagement Monday sponsored by the group. She spoke at the Toronto Zionist Center without incident. A Chabad rabbi had uninvited Geller to speak…
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News Modern-Day Rabbi Must Be CEO, Teacher and Spiritual Leader at Once
Last fall, Jessica Minnen, a rabbinical student at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, was on her way to officiate at a wedding in Brooklyn. What started out as an ordinary ride on the A train turned into a spiritual revelation about the 21st-century rabbinate. Minnen was quietly reviewing a course catalog for a new…
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News Orthodox Rabbinic School Sparks Feud With Graduation of First Class of Women
An Orthodox umbrella organization has rejected the ordination of three female clergy by a groundbreaking Bronx Orthodox rabbinical school as “contradicting the norms of our community.” The Rabbinical Council of America, a prominent group that serves more than 1,000 Orthodox rabbis, reacted strongly to the recent graduation of three women from Riverdale’s Yeshivat Maharat, which…
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News Holocaust Claims Fraud; The Changing American Rabbinate; Comedian Marc Maron
In this week’s Reporters Roundtable podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by reporter Paul Berger to discuss how employees of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany falsely claimed $57 million meant for Holocaust victims. Then, Forward fellow Anne Cohen describes the challenges and opportunities facing America’s new rabbis. Finally, deputy arts editor Ezra…
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Fast Forward Fierce Dissent Erupts Over Israel Chief Rabbi Post
Members of Habayit Hayehudi are split over who to support in the race for Chief Rabbinate, with party leader Naftali Bennett strongly in favor of Rabbi David Stav, a founder of the religious Zionist organization, Tzohar. On Sunday Bennett denied reports about “deals of one sort or another with Shas or other parties” concerning the…
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Fast Forward Pamela Geller’s Talk at Toronto Shul Scrapped in ‘Hate Speech’ Flap
A speaking engagement by American anti-Islamic firebrand Pamela Geller was moved following police intervention. Geller, a vocal critic of radical Islam, was due to speak May 13 at a Chabad synagogue in Thornhill, north of Toronto, but the synagogue’s rabbi, Mendel Kaplan, backed out after a visit by the hate crimes unit of local police….
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Israel News Israelis Chafe Under Orthodox Grip on Marriage, Divorce and Conversion
To get married in Israel, Dima Motel had to bring his family photo album and two of his ancestors’ birth certificates to a rabbinical court. Then an investigator quizzed his mother in Yiddish. Israel’s Chief Rabbinate often asks Russian immigrants like Motel to prove that they’re Jewish, sometimes requiring documentary evidence that can be hard…
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Fast Forward Dresden Gets First Town Rabbi Since 1938
The Jewish community of Dresden is installing its first hometown rabbi since 1938. Alexander Nachama, 29, is to be formally inaugurated this Sabbath as rabbi of the new synagogue in Dresden, which is in eastern Germany. Dresden’s Semper-Synagogue was destroyed during the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938. The new synagogue was dedicated at the original site…
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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Fast Forward Tucker Carlson calls for stripping citizenship from Americans who served in the Israeli army
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Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
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Opinion This German word explains Trump’s authoritarian impulses — and Hitler’s rise to power
In Case You Missed It
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Opinion What Democrats fighting Trump should learn from Germany’s failure to stop Hitler
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Fast Forward 31st anniversary of AMIA bombing marked by ceremonies in Argentina, Israel and, for the first time, Congress
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Fast Forward Mike Huckabee to Israel: End hostile treatment of Christian allies
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Fast Forward Connie Francis, 20th-century star turned TikTok sensation, recorded an album of Jewish songs in 1960
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