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Israel News Torah In Hand, Leader Of United States’ Largest Jewish Group Roughed Up At Holiest Site
The sky was cloudless when the group gathered in the Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday morning to celebrate the ordination of four new Reform rabbis. But when they tried to enter the Western Wall complex, security guards physically accosted them, attempting to keep them from bringing Torahs onto the main plaza. In the ensuing…
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News Reform Synagogues Underpay Female Rabbis — Despite Emphasis On Social Justice
Reform synagogues are chronically underpaying female rabbis, according to a previously unreported study issued this past summer by the Reform movement. Women in senior or solo rabbi positions at larger Reform congregations are paid 85% of what men make in the same jobs, the survey found. And while men outnumber women 4-to-1 among senior or…
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Life The Origins Of Halloween Are Pagan. But That Doesn’t Mean We Should Avoid It Entirely.
When my children were young, they attended preschool at our local Jewish Community Center. While there, with the exception of Nowruz (Persian New Year), they had no in-school experience with any holiday that was not a Jewish or an American one. No Christmas or Easter. No St. Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day. And no…
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Fast Forward Netanyahu Says Non-Orthodox Jews Using Western Wall For Leverage
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called out the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel for using their partnership in the Western Wall agreement as a clandestine way to gain recognition. Netanyahu told reporters in New York on Monday night that the Reform and Conservative movements wanted to get recognition “via the backdoor,…
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News Trump Era Sparks ‘Tectonic Shift’ For Liberal Jewish Activism
Each year of Barack Obama’s presidency, hundreds of rabbis from all denominations had an annual heart-to-heart with him during a High Holidays conference call. Why is this year different? A coalition representing thousands of rabbis from the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements opted out. They said they couldn’t countenance such a connection with Trump after…
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Breaking News Orthodox, Unlike Defiant Liberal Groups, Will Join Trump’s Conference Call
A traditional greeting call before the High Holidays has become a point of contention for the Jewish community and a window into the Trump administration’s relations with the American Jewish establishment. The call, scheduled for Friday morning, was described by the White House in invitations sent out Wednesday to rabbis and Jewish leaders as a…
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Life Yes, The Orthodox Are Exclusive – But That Doesn’t Mean You Should Be
A follow-up to an essay published last week, “Do Pluralistic Jewish Organizations Stop At The Orthodox?” A few months ago, I attended a lecture by an acclaimed academic, an Orthodox Jewish female leader. She recounted a story: Highly credentialed with degrees from Ivy League institutions, she was invited to be on a panel discussion at…
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Opinion How The Obsession With Jewish Continuity Perverts Our Liberal Values
This week, we found out from sociologist Steven Cohen that the worlds of Reform and Conservative Judaism are disappearing into blackness — almost literally. Their scant replacement numbers are being demographically dwarfed by the masses of Orthodox children, and a generation down the line the American Jewish population will have drastically shifted its religious affiliation….
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