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Fast Forward Progressive Jews From Around World Convene in Brazil
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Hundreds of Jewish activists from several countries are meeting in Brazil for the biennial congress of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, one of the world’s largest Jewish organizations. Rabbis, spiritual leaders, cantors, scholars, teachers, volunteers and other activists from across Latin America, Israel, United States, Canada and England…
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Israel News Will Israel Live Up To Deal on Western Wall Prayer? Benjamin Netanyahu Sets 3-Week Deadline
American Jewish leaders have told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Jewish diaspora’s relationship with Israel is at stake if it fails to implement a plan — already approved by the government, but blocked by the ultra-Orthodox — for an egalitarian plaza at the Western Wall. At a June 1 meeting, called in emergency…
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Life Reform Women Rabbis Celebrate Getting Exact Same Title as Men — After 44 Years
JTA — Since 1972, when the Reform movement ordained its first female rabbi, more than 700 others have joined her ranks in that denomination alone. But a surprise awaited them, though few seemed to notice: The language on their ordination certificates was markedly different than that of their male colleagues. Men were referred to by…
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News Can American Jews Rescue Western Wall Prayer Deal?
The deadline for resolving the crisis over the new egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall in Jerusalem has been extended indefinitely, after an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to draft a solution acceptable to the opposing sides within the 60 days he was allotted. Meanwhile, leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements…
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Fast Forward Rockland County Reform Temple Goes on Auction Block for $6.7M
NEW YORK (JTA) — A 51-year-old Reform temple in New York’s Rockland County — an area whose liberal Jewish population has plummeted in recent decades as its haredi Orthodox community has rapidly grown — is closing its doors. Temple Beth El will in June vacate its building in Spring Valley, 3 miles from the Hasidic…
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Opinion Why Are Israelis Lashing Out at Reform Jews? Because We’ve Reached the Tipping Point!
Malcolm Gladwell had it right: “There comes a time when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” Thomas Kuhn, a historian of science who wrote of similar tendencies in his classic “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” would have called this the moment of “paradigm change.” Whichever author’s construction…
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Opinion Can Reform Jews Win Battle for the Soul of Israel?
The attacks continue. I am speaking not of the violent physical attacks that have dominated the news in Israel lately, but rather the attacks by the Israeli Orthodox establishment upon Jews standing up for their rights. Jews striving to bring to fruition the words of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which call for “complete equality of…
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News Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Slams Reform Jews as ‘Heretics’ — but Backs Western Wall Prayer Deal Anyway
(JTA) — Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl, former chief rabbi of Jerusalem’s Old City, is no fan of Reform and Conservative Judaism. In a letter sent Thursday to Israel’s chief rabbis, the haredi Orthodox Nebenzahl calls the movements “heretical religions.” They are “uprooting the religion and hurting everything holy to us,” he writes. “Their war against the…
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