Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of rabbis, the spiritual leaders of Jewish congregations.
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Breaking News Orthodox Rabbi Martin Wolmark Pleads Guilty in Get Divorce Extortion Scheme
An Orthodox Jewish rabbi pleaded guilty on Wednesday to playing a role in a scheme to kidnap Jewish men and force them to grant divorces to their unhappy wives, said federal authorities in New Jersey. Martin Wolmark, 56, pleaded guilty to conspiring to travel to New Jersey to coerce a man to give his wife…
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Breaking News Driver Who Killed Princeton Rabbi James Diamond Acquitted in Crash
The driver of the car that killed Rabbi James Diamond, the retired director of Princeton University’s Center for Jewish Life, was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Eric Maltz, 22, had faced up to 30 years in prison on charges of aggravated manslaughter, assault by auto and death by auto , according to the…
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News Jewish Activists Struggle for Right Tone on Racism After Murders of Police Officers
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…
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News Did Rabbi Barry Freundel Treat Mikveh Like ‘Car Wash’ To Peep on Women?
Two new lawsuits aim to hold Modern Orthodoxy’s largest rabbinic organization responsible in the Rabbi Barry Freundel mikvah-peeping scandal. Both lawsuits allege that the Rabbinical Council of America and Freundel’s own synagogue were aware of inappropriate conduct by Freundel prior to the discovery that he was using a hidden camera to view women as they…
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Breaking News Orthodox Rabbinic Group Sued in Barry Freundel Mikveh Peeping Case
A lawsuit arising out of allegations of voyeurism at a Washington D.C. ritual bath added the Rabbinical Council of America as a defendant. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month by a third-year student at Georgetown University’s law school, initially named as defendants Rabbi Barry Freundel’s Washington synagogue, Kesher Israel, the adjacent mikvah and her own…
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Breaking News New York Rabbis Arrested at Eric Garner Police Brutality Protest
Several prominent rabbis and the president of a national teachers union were arrested Thursday night while protesting police brutality. Rabbis Sharon Kleinbaum, Jill Jacobs, and Shai Held, along with Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, were taken into custody for blocking traffic to protest a grand jury’s decision not to indict…
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Breaking News New York Rabbis Join Protest of Eric Garner Decision
Several high-profile New York rabbis are scheduled to join a Manhattan protest of a grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officer who killed Eric Garner, an unarmed black man. The march set for Thursday night on the heavily Jewish Upper West Side neighborhood is being coordinated by the Jews for Racial & Economic…
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Breaking News Jewish Student Sues Barry Freundel Synagogue Over Mikveh Peeping
A third-year student at Georgetown University’s law school is suing Rabbi Barry Freundel, his Washington synagogue, the adjacent mikvah and her own law school for allowing Freundel’s alleged misdeeds to go unchecked. The unidentified student’s suit was filed Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court by attorney Steven Silverman of Baltimore. She said she was lured to…
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