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 Barry Starr, a leader in the Conservative movement who has served a suburban Boston synagogue for nearly three decades, resigned after acknowledging his marital infidelity. Starr informed congregants at Temple Israel, a Conservative synagogue in Sharon, of his resignation in an emailed letter sent last week, the Boston Globe reported. In addition to engaging…
One day, when I was in my early 20s and teaching Torah to religious newbies in Jerusalem, I felt the bedrock of belief shudder beneath me. There’s a reason the sages wrote that the air of Jerusalem makes one wise. I could feel the vibe everywhere. I loved how a cosmetician might share a Torah…
New Jersey Rabbi David Wax pleaded guilty to kidnapping charges as part of a scheme to force an Israeli man to give his wife a get. The rabbi admitted to being paid $100,000 to compel the man — identified by the Associated Press as Yisrael Briskman — to grant his wife a religious writ of…
(JTA) — When she decided to split up from her husband, she went before an Orthodox rabbinical court and, after two perfunctory hearings and little discussion, received a religious writ of divorce. It was only months later that the woman learned that the court had flagged her as an adulteress and placed her on a…
Several large, mainstream Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, have to decided to vote in favor of admitting the dovish Israel lobby J Street into organized Jewry’s primary umbrella group on Israel. Others, like the Jewish Federations of North America, are leaning towards voting that way, according to informed…
Rabbi Aaron Landes, a Philadelphia congregational rabbi for decades and the longtime director of U.S. Naval Reserve chaplains, has died. Landes died on April 19 following a battle with leukemia. He was 84. He managed some 700 chaplains as head of the chaplains corps until retiring in 1989, according to the Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia….
Even before my first day on the job, 44 years ago, as I was stocking up at a supermarket for my new residence, a soon-to-be congregant approached me in the parking lot. “You won’t last one year in Congregation Neve Shalom,” the congregant said. Your predecessor was too beloved, and you’ll never fill his shoes.”…
South Africa’s chief rabbi called on the Jewish community not to shelter or support Rabbi Eliezer Berland, who fled Israel after accusations of sexual assault. Rabbi Warren Goldstein in a letter dated April 11 wrote to rabbis throughout South Africa about Berland, who reportedly fled to South Africa after being ordered deported last week from…
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