Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
A counselor at a JCC day camp in suburban Detroit was charged with producing child pornography after allegedly filming prepubescent boys in the JCC locker room and sharing the photos online. Matthew David Kuppe, 21, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, was arraigned in federal court Thursday and charged with production, distribution, receipt and possession of child…
A Safed rabbi was indicted on 13 counts of grave sexual crimes against women who had turned to him with religious questions. Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg, 46, was charged Monday in the Nazareth District Court, Israel Radio reported. The charges include rape, indecent assault, sexual harassment, fraud and obstructing an investigation, Ynet reported. The prosecution asked…
Reconstructionist congregations say they’re ready for their movement’s seminary to become the first rabbinical school to accept students with non-Jewish partners, yet the fallout from the expected change could still fracture the troubled denomination. The new policy, which will face a final vote among members of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College’s faculty at the end of…
I have a confession: I am a convert regarding conversions. That’s the stark realization I reached as chairman of the Rabbinical Council of America’s recent conversion review committee. The committee was established last fall to review the RCA’s Geirus Policies and Standards system, the network of regional Orthodox conversion courts operating under the aegis of…
(JTA) — After facing criticism for its handling of inappropriate behavior by a convert-supervising rabbi who turned out to be a mikvah-peeping voyeur, the country’s main centrist Orthodox rabbinical group has released key guidelines aimed at preventing abuses during the conversion process. The Rabbinical Council of America is recommending that would-be converts be given a…
Israeli police officers arrested at Ben Gurion Airport a prominent rabbi who sought to leave the country amid accusations that he committed rape and other sex crimes. The rabbi, whose name was not published in Israeli media but was identified as a yeshiva head from the Safed area who belongs to Modern-Orthodox Zionist circles, was…
Susan Ahyed’s long fight for justice, culminating in an Supreme Court victory last week, began with a rather morbid thought. A former New Yorker, Ahyed had been attending an old friend’s funeral in her hometown of Netanya in early 2011, when she suddenly noticed the signs pointing women in one direction and men in the…
In his characteristically crisp manner, President Barak Obama summed up the recent US Supreme Court decision acknowledging the right of gays to marry: . The Constitution is about individual liberty. And change is possible. Good for you, citizens and residents of the United States of America. An important job, well done. And while this Constitutional…
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