This is the Forward’s coverage of Reform Judaism, a major liberal Jewish denomination.
Reform Judaism
The Latest
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Opinion A Trailblazing Cantor
In many ways, Mark Goldman’s a traditional cantor. He serves a 900-member Reform congregation, in Plantation, Florida. He’s performed around the world, including a historic group gig at the Vatican. And he loves to chant the “haunting, yet familiar” Kol Nidre. But this year, the UK expat became a trailblazer. After nearly two decades as…
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Fast Forward Benjamin Netanyahu Cancels Live Speech at Reform Biennal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled plans to speak in person to the biennial meeting of the Union for Reform Judaism. The announcement was made Tuesday, a day before the start of the conference, which is scheduled to run through Dec. 15 in San Diego, Haaretz reported. Netanyahu will address the closing plenary of the…
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News Synagogues Turning to Consultants To Better Understand Communities
(JTA) — Before Sacha Litman shares his data analysis with his synagogue clients, he likes to have the board members and staff guess the contents. Which programs are most expensive and most popular? How many Hebrew school parents would recommend the congregation to a friend? Eighty percent of the time, Litman says, the assumptions of synagogue…
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News Reform Biennial Will Showcase ‘Vitality and Openness’ by Including Outsiders
(JTA) — First there was the Conservative movement’s October biennial conference, billed as “The conversation of the century” and opened up to presenters from outside the movement. Then came the November General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, which featured a “Global Jewish shuk: a marketplace of dialogue and debate” led by young Israelis…
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Opinion In Jerusalem’s Conclaves, Mind-Numbing Meets Ugly
Jerusalem is having an unusually mild fall. November began amid sunny skies, temperatures in the high 60s, light breezes and just the slightest hint of feathery drizzle to announce that after a bone-dry October, the rainy season was finally about to return. Diaspora Jews are returning too. No, not the waves of immigration that generations…
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Opinion Tall (Reform) Rabbi in Sea of Black Hats
More than 5,000 Chabad rabbis and supporters gathered on Sunday for the 30th annual conference of international Shluchim, or messengers of the Hasidic movement. Former U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman addressed the crowd as the first keynote speaker. Rabbi Dov Greenberg, Chabad rabbi at Stanford University, told the crowd that you are more likely to find…
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News Space to Spare, Reform and Conservative Congregations Turn to Orthodox
(JTA) — Marla Topp of Temple Judea Mizpah in Skokie, Ill., doesn’t need survey data to tell her that Reform Judaism is in decline and Orthodox Judaism is growing. She has to look no further than her own synagogue. A couple of months ago, the temple began renting out unused classroom space to an Orthodox…
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News Conservatives Mark Centennial With Push To Stem Drastic Decline
Convening for its centennial conference under the cloud of a recent survey indicating a steep drop in affiliation, the Conservative synagogue movement is trying to use the landmark gathering to mark a fresh beginning. A hundred years after the group’s founding with an ideal of combining Jewish tradition with modern life, Conservative leaders are hoping…
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish אַ פֿאָלקסטימלעכע שטימונג אויפֿן הײַיאָריקן אַמסטערדאַמער ייִדיש־סימפּאָזיוםA folksy approach to this year’s Yiddish symposium in Amsterdam
דער שוועדישער פֿאַרלעגער ניקאָלײַ אָלניאַנסקי האָט דערציילט ווי ער האָט אָנגעהויבן אַרויסגעבן קינדערביכלעך אויף ייִדיש.
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Books A New Jersey congregation was already falling apart. Then came Oct 7.
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News Most Jewish voters rate Mamdani poorly, new poll finds
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Fast Forward After a Maryland teacher’s death, her 200-piece Judaica collection finds new life in a Jewish museum