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News Rabbi Accused Of Sexual Misconduct Asked Not To Attend Spiritual Retreat
The Reform movement’s rabbinical association asked a North Carolina rabbi accused of sexual misconduct not to attend a popular summer retreat for Jewish community leaders. Rabbi Larry Bach withdrew from the Institute for Jewish Spirituality event before the event’s leaders could decide whether to let him attend or not, the executive director of the IJS,…
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Community Don’t Mourn For Reform Judaism Just Yet
It is both shocking and predictable that in such a turbulent week, one of the most depressing, cynical, Holocaust-referencing articles of the week was written by a rabbi about the state of progressive Judaism. In his article “Paying the Price for Abandoning Jewish Peoplehood,” Rabbi Clifford Librach gleefully skewers Reform Judaism with one hand while…
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News Orthodox To Dominate American Jewry In Coming Decades As Population Booms
It’s been nearly five years since the Pew Research Center released its “Portrait of Jewish Americans.” Given its stark conclusions, the study ruffled some feathers even as it expanded our notions of Jewish community. It highlighted the impact of intermarriage and the growth of the Orthodox community, and has impacted policy making for Jewish communal…
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News Reform Rabbi Was Secretly Censured For Affair With Congregant
When a Reform rabbi resigned from his Durham, North Carolina synagogue recently, the synagogue’s lawyer said the problem was “sexual in nature.” Now the Forward has learned what those words meant. The rabbi had a yearlong, sexual relationship with a woman who regularly worshipped at the synagogue. The Reform movement’s rabbinical association had censured him…
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Community Where Have All Of The Reform Synagogues Gone?
It was like entering my own personal Holy of Holies. That was how I felt this past weekend, as I visited the URJ Camp Eisner in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The occasion: the wedding of the son of beloved friends, who themselves have become like family. But, on a deeper level, it was an act of…
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News Reform Group Knew About Complaints Against Rabbi, But Didn’t Tell His Synagogue
The Reform movement’s rabbinical association censured the rabbi of a Durham, North Carolina synagogue after receiving a complaint that was “sexual in nature,” but didn’t tell his congregation, spurring a watchdog group to demand that the movement be more forthcoming about accusations of sexual wrongdoing against its clergy. “It’s kind of shocking,” said Shulamit Magnus,…
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Fast Forward Reform Leader ‘Alarmed, Concerned And Profoundly Saddened’ By Gaza Deaths
(JTA) — Reform Jewish leader Rabbi Rick Jacobs said he was “alarmed, concerned and profoundly saddened” by the deaths of more than 50 Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border. “That Israel has the right, and even the obligation, to defend herself and her borders is beyond dispute,” Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism,…
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Fast Forward Reform Seminary Appoints Rabbi David Ellenson As Interim President
(JTA) — The Hebrew Union College — Jewish Institute of Religion appointed Rabbi David Ellenson to serve as interim president, following the death of Rabbi Aaron Panken in a plane crash earlier this month. On Monday, the Reform movement’s flagship seminary, said Ellenson would serve as interim president of its four campuses in New York, Jerusalem,…
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