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.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin said that, should Israel’s Chief Rabbinate dismiss him as chief rabbi of Efrat, he would not accept the decision. Speaking to JTA Tuesday, Riskin also said that the Chief Rabbinate does not have the support of the vast majority of Israelis for its conversion policy. Riskin urged the rabbinate to accept a…
Israel’s newly-appointed Religious Services Minister said he would void the marriage authority of municipal rabbinates if they are found to be discriminating against Ethiopian Jews. David Azoulay of the Orthodox Shas party spoke interview Thursday with Army Radio, following the station’s report about alleged delays by the rabbinate of Petach Tikva near Tel Aviv in…
What should a rabbinic voice on Israel sound like? How ought religious leaders speak – among themselves, within their communities, out in the world – about the divisions and conflicts, the difficult issues that Israel faces, the challenges that she presents, as well as the good news? A number of premises underlie my questions. Rabbinic…
A prominent Boston rabbi was indicted for embezzlement and larceny for stealing money from his temple to pay off a man who was blackmailing the rabbi for his supposed affair with a teenage male. Rabbi Barry Starr, who resigned a year ago from Temple Israel, a Conservative synagogue in Sharon, Massachusetts, allegedly became entangled in…
General Motors, home to the Corvette, the Camaro, the Cadillac — and a Jewish cemetery? According to , nearly 1,100 souls can claim a resting place in a 2.2 acre plot of land, surrounded on all sides by General Motors Co.’s Detroit Hamtramck Plant. Beth Olem Cemetery has been around for roughly 155 years, and was…
A 30-year-old suburban Boston man has been indicted on theft and extortion charges in relation to the abrupt resignation last year of a leading Conservative rabbi over allegations of sex with a teenage boy. Nicholas Zemeitus, of Quincy, Massachusetts, is charged with eight counts of larceny, two counts of receiving stolen property and one count…
Rabbi Nina Mandel of Pennsylvania has been appointed the new president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. Mandel’s appointment was announced Monday. She joins two other women in leading the Reconstructionist movement: Rabbi Danielle Leshaw, the association’s interim executive director, and Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities. Mandel was…
It’s time to talk about Israel’s blacklist. This registry of “untouchables” — the last public accounting of it in 2004 lists 5,305 Israelis — is a motley crew who fall under three general categorizations: People who can’t marry any type of Jew (2,835) “Unkosher” Jews who can’t marry “kosher Jews” but can marry other “unkosher…
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