A prominent Washington, D.C. rabbi broke into a city council meeting on Tuesday to decry officials’ lack of action against anti-Semitism. Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, the leader of the modern Orthodox congregation Ohev Shalom, was outraged over the Council not censuring councilman Trayon White after he claimed last month that a snowstorm was caused by the…
NEW YORK (JTA) — As spiritual leader of one of the most widely known Reform synagogues in America, Rabbi Joshua Davidson tries not to be divisive on the holiest days of the year. So on the High Holidays of years past, when he stood before thousands of congregants at Temple Emanu-El in New York City,…
With the country riveted by this morning’s Senate testimony by former FBI director James Comey, one Washington rabbi has a front row seat. Politico writer Jake Sherman tweeted this morning that Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of Ohev Shalom – The National Synagogue had a seat next to former superstar U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Seated next to…
Rabbi George Finkelstein was quietly forced out of Yeshiva University High School for Boys in 1995 because of inappropriate wrestling with students that some of them considered abusive. But the Forward has learned that the wrestling did not stop after his departure from Y.U. It continued during Finkelstein’s next two posts, as dean of a…
Seeking to blunt an outpouring of criticism from alumni, Yeshiva University has issued a statement emphasizing the wide-ranging powers and broad scope of an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse against former staff members at its Manhattan high school. Y.U. launched the investigation in December after the Forward published the testimony of four former students…
Following the recent arrest at the Western Wall of a woman wearing a Jewish prayer shawl, or tallit, a prominent American Modern Orthodox rabbi has requested that Israel’s U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren meet with “a rabbinic delegation of American Orthodox rabbis who strongly support the right of women to wear a tallit and tzitzit.†In…
Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, the Modern Orthodox spiritual leader of Washington’s Ohev Sholom-The National Synagogue, has penned a scathing op-ed for The New York Times about the growing controversy over labor conditions at the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse: …News reports and government documents have described abusive practices at Agriprocessors against workers, including minors. Children as young…
100% of profits support our journalism
