This is the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Rabbis
The Latest
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Fast Forward Tzohar Candidates May Run for Chief Rabbis
Tzohar, the rabbinical organization that has recently launched a campaign to “strengthen the Chief Rabbinate” is considering running candidates in the upcoming elections for Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis. The candidate for Ashkenazi chief rabbi will probably be the organization’s chairman, Rabbi David Stav, though the move and the choice must still be approved by…
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Opinion Keep Obama’s Rabbis
The Republican Jewish Coalition and the Emergency Committee for Israel this week urged a group of rabbis supporting President Barack Obama’s reelection to purge members of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council from its ranks. The conservative groups claimed they were shocked by the inclusion in the “Rabbis for Obama” list of those whose…
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Fast Forward Conservatives Blast Rabbi on Pro-Obama List
Two conservative groups called on the Obama campaign to sever ties with a “radical” on its newly-released list of more than 600 rabbis who support the president’s reelection. The campaign rejected the demand. The Republican Jewish Coalition on Thursday “expressed profound outrage” that Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, a Renewal rabbi from California that the RJC described…
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News $20K Plot To Blackmail Rabbi With Sex Photos
Two Israeli men were indicted for plotting to send women to seduce a New York City rabbi and blackmail him with photos of the encounter. The men, in their mid-30s from central Israel, were charged Monday in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court with conspiracy to commit a crime and attempted extortion under threat. The Jerusalem…
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Culture A (Kosher) Can of Worms
From the hulking Willamette meteorite to the sparkling Star of India sapphire, visitors to the American Museum of Natural History in New York are used to seeing unusual sights. But museum-goers last year were likely unprepared for the sight — and smell — of Rabbi Chaim Loike, as he walked past the ticket booths carrying…
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Opinion Anonymous Pamphlets Underline Haredi Splits
The monochromatic ocean of Haredim at the funeral of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv last month concealed a deeper undercurrent of dissent. Elyashiv, the acknowledged leader of the Ultra-Orthodox Lithuanian community, had roped together two competing factions among a group usually seen as monolithic. There are the conservatives, led by Shmuel Auerbach of Jerusalem, as well…
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Israel News Rabbi’s Death Could Splinter Ultra-Orthodox
When Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Israel’s most revered rabbi, died on July 18 at the age of 102, he left his community at a crossroads. Elyashiv, broadly accepted as the leader of the “Lithuanian” Haredi community — meaning all Ashkenazi Haredim who aren’t members of a Hasidic sect — took this important post from another consensus…
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Fast Forward Meir Soloveichik on British Chief Rabbi Short List
Three U.S. rabbis are among those being considered to become Britain’s chief rabbi. Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University and associate rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, is expected in London in a few days for meetings with British Jewish leaders, the Times of Israel…
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News DNA test kits spark a surge of online conversions to Judaism in the U.S.
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Film & TV For ill and for good, this ‘Wicked’ song has become ubiquitous
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News As young Jews move away from Israel, Jewish leaders are reluctant to change their approach
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