Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Reform Judaism, a major liberal Jewish denomination.
Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Reform Judaism, a major liberal Jewish denomination.
Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Reform Judaism, a major liberal Jewish denomination.
Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Reform Judaism, a major liberal Jewish denomination.
Women seeking equal prayer rights at the Western Wall are planning a further challenge to Jewish Orthodox tradition at the site after a court ruling bolstered their cause, an activist said on Sunday. The Women of the Wall movement hopes to have its members read from a Torah (holy scriptures) scroll at the Jerusalem site,…
Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, said rabbis must weigh whether to oppose a compromise proposal over egalitarian prayer at Judaism’s holiest site. In a statement Thursday, Rabinowitz vowed to fight against “the slightest deviation” from customary practice at the Western Wall. However, he left unclear whether the compromise forged by Jewish Agency…
There’s a new controversy roiling the Reform movement: Can an applicant to rabbinic school be married to a non-Jewish partner? Everyone knows that many American Jews date men and women from other religious backgrounds. But rabbis? This might shock some readers — even today, when nothing shocks us anymore. But actually, the phenomenon is not…
Earlier this month, while several hundred women held their monthly Rosh Chodesh prayer service at the Western Wall, a group of ultra-Orthodox men jeered loudly at them from across the barrier separating men and women. “Reform Jews, get out of here,” they shouted. “Reform Jews do not belong to the people of Israel. Reform Jews,…
One of the first things Rabbi Alice Goldfinger said as we sat down for our interview is that she would likely forget all about me. “I’ll know you were here, because the appointment is in my calendar,” she said. “But I won’t remember it. I have no short-term memory. I don’t feel time, so by…
The rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz isn’t opposed to the plan for an egalitarian prayer section there, he announced in a statement emailed to reporters yesterday. But it’s already clear that he doesn’t speak for the Haredi mainstream. Rabinowitz is Haredi, but softer on religious issues than most Haredi leaders. This is partly…
Israeli police detained five women activists on Thursday at the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s most sacred sites, for wearing prayer shawls, which Orthodox tradition sees as solely for men, a spokesman said. The incident occurred during a monthly prayer session by the Women of the Wall, a group opposed to police-enforced Orthodox controls at…
A dramatic offer to set up a new egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall in Jerusalem was met with a no less dramatic willingness to compromise on behalf of all the major religious leaders in the American Jewish community. In a rare show of consensus, activists on the liberal side of the Reform movement…
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