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Fast Forward Knesset Bill Would Reject All Israeli Conversions Not Done By Rabbinate
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A bill submitted to the Knesset would require the state to recognize only conversions completed under the auspices of the Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate. The measure, which was submitted by Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, former head of the Haredi Orthodox party Shas, appears to be an effort to circumvent a 2016 Supreme Court…
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Fast Forward Conservative Rabbi: Let Clergy Officiate Intermarriages
As Conservative religious leaders continue to debate whether the movement should bless intermarriages, one rabbi is adding his voice to a growing group that wants to officiate such ceremonies. Rabbi Steven Abraham of Beth El Synagogue in Omaha penned an op-ed in The Times of Israel this week calling on the movement to change its…
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Fast Forward An End To Kosher Corruption In Israel?
Critics of the state rabbinate contend that restaurateurs who want the kosher seal of approval have only to open their wallets for the kosher inspectors in order to receive the coveted designation. Now, the rabbinate is taking steps to end the perception of corruption in its ranks by adopting a new set of standards, reported…
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Fast Forward Gay Rabbi Leads Conservative Effort To ‘Radically Reimagine’ Traditions
Gil Steinlauf, the prominent Washington, D.C. rabbi who made waves when he came out three years ago to his congregation, will leave his post as senior rabbi at Adas Israel to head up a new “innovation lab” for the Conservative movement. Steinlauf described the initiative as “far reaching” and “designed to radically reimagine the ancient…
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Breaking News Rabbi Saul Leeman, Who Marched In South With MLK, Is Dead At 100
(JTA) — Rabbi Saul Leeman, a longtime leader of Conservative congregations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and a civil rights activist who marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965, has died at 100. Leeman, who served the Cranston Jewish Center on Rhode Island and later Temple Shalom in Medford, Massachusetts, died April 5. The Providence Journal…
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Community Rabbis Urge President Trump To “Act Decisively” In Syria
Dear President Trump, We write to you with angst just days before the Passover holiday when the Jews escaped the oppressive tyranny of Pharaoh in Egypt. The Assad regime in Syria appears to have conducted a nerve gas attack against Syrian civilians yesterday. At least 58 civilians have been killed in the attack, marking the…
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Community Prominent Orthodox Rabbis Affirm Progressive Commitments
Rabbi Dov Linzer, our Rosh Yeshiva, spoke at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School’s annual dinner about the centrality of Torah in our lives as Jews, and then shared the following words: “‘And let it be that we all may know your name and study your Torah.’ Let us make sure that everyone – rich or…
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Fast Forward Chabad Rabbi Loses Russia Deportation Appeal
(JTA) — A Russian appeals court affirmed the expulsion order issued against an American rabbi working in Sochi, in what a local leader of the Chabad movement called a “dark day” for Jews. In its ruling Tuesday against Ari Edelkopf, the Krasnodar Court of Appeals accepted the position of a Sochi tribunal that earlier this…
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Culture Why saying ‘L’shana Tova’ on Rosh Hashanah may not be the correct phrase
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Culture A Jewish prophet of the 1980s would be horrified to see that we didn’t heed his warnings
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Opinion This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
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Fast Forward Meet Lev Kreitman, who brought down Tel Aviv shooter and survived Nova music festival on Oct. 7
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Oct. 7: One Year Later On the eve of this grim anniversary, what we can — and cannot — control
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Fast Forward Antisemitism hits record high in the U.S.; new report shows most-ever incidents in single year
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Culture He founded the Harlem Globetrotters and is the shortest man in the basketball hall of fame. A new book tells his story.
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Oct. 7: One Year Later One year after Oct. 7, a Yom Kippur ritual of communal mourning takes on fresh meaning
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