They have power. They have charm. They have longterm commitment. And some of them are annoying. With the understanding that we are merely scratching the surface, here they are, in no particular order: the power couples of Judaism. The A-Listers: Diane von Fürstenberg and Barry Diller Status: Married (2001) Him: A business brainiac who has…
Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to headline a gala dinner honoring Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, a prominent critic of the Trump administration and the spiritual leader of the Manhattan LGBT synagogue Congregation Beit Simchat Torah. The gala marks Kleinbaum’s 25th anniversary leading Beit Simchat Torah, perhaps the most prominent LGBT synagogue in the world. Kleinbaum’s partner,…
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum was observing the Sabbath on December 20 when New York police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were shot and killed in their patrol car in Brooklyn by 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who then took his own life. After sundown, Kleinbaum, who leads New York’s Congregation Beit Simchat Torah and has been an…
The Huffington Post is out with its list of the top 10 women religious leaders, and one is a rabbi, another a Jewish activist and a third is a spiritual guru with Jewish roots. Coming in at No. 9 is Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum who leads the only LGBT synagogue in Manhattan, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah…
Every Tisha B’Av, rabbis around the world try to come up with new and creative ways to remind their congregations of the history of the two Holy Temples that once stood in Jerusalem. Students of Jewish history readily recall 586 B.C.E. as the year that the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple, and 70 C.E. as…
The LGBT–oriented Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in Manhattan, led by openly gay Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum — a Sisterhood 50 selection — was front and center in the fight to get same-sex marriage legislation passed in New York state. (Kleinbaum also made headlines when she put her arm around an ultra-Orthodox man protesting the legislation, and…
If you were to ask the question “Who is a Jew?” to some ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrating against marriage equality yesterday in the New York state capitol, their answer would definitively be “Not Sharon Kleinbaum.” In a video made yesterday by The Times Union (the newspaper serving the Albany region) and posted today on the gay…
Newsweek is just out with its 4th annual list of what it deems to be “the 50 most influential rabbis in America.” This year, as last, few women have made the cut and all but one are in the bottom half of the list. The first woman to appear — Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus, the…
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