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Keyword: rabbis

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  • Oh, for the Glory Days

    01/01/2010 2:39:18 PM PST · by Stepan12 · 9 replies · 417+ views
    Solomonia ^ | December 10, 2009 | Tom Mountain
    [The following, by Tom Mountain, here in full, appears in this week's Jewish Advocate] The rabbis could barely contain their glee at meeting their president for the first time. Ignoring protocol, they crowded around him, hands outstretched, in a sincere, even loving attempt, to express their adulation. One rabbi grasped the president's hand, looked him in the eye, and said, "Mr. President, I believe that had history placed you in your special position during World War II, there would not have been a Holocaust." The president, visibly moved, was uncharacteristically speechless. Another rabbi, so overcome with emotion at standing in...
  • Chief Jewish Rabbis in Israel: Abortion Delays Coming of Messiah, Back Pro-Life

    12/29/2009 4:27:37 PM PST · by wagglebee · 25 replies · 419+ views
    Life News ^ | 12/29/09 | Steven Ertelt
    Jerusalem, Israel (LifeNews.com) -- The top two Jewish rabbis in Israel sent a letter on Monday to their colleagues denouncing abortion. They said that abortion kills thousands of Israeli babies a year and delays the coming of the Messiah and they promised to do more to promote pro-life and pregnancy help efforts. Rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar sent a letter yesterday to all of the state-employed Jewish rabbis saying they would "strengthen" the efforts of the pro-life council in the rabbinate to help reduce abortions.The letter says "the vast majority of abortions are unnecessary and Halacha severely prohibits...
  • Synagogue Security: Rabbis Learn To Use Firearms

    09/07/2009 1:14:26 PM PDT · by Still Thinking · 17 replies · 644+ views
    WCBS Website ^ | September 4, 2009 | Sean Hennessey
    With Houses Of Worship Constantly Under Threat, Former NYC Cop Offers Class Designed To Keep People Inside Safe NEW YORK (CBS) -- Some might call it the "God squad," others a proactive approach to safety. A rabbi in Queens is beginning a training program aimed at keeping places of worship worry free. Inside a Kew Gardens place of prayer is a team of experts whose goal is to make synagogues safer by teaching martial arts, how to use a gun and protecting worshipers if someone came in with guns blaring. It's the brainchild of Rabbi Gary Moscowitz, a former New...
  • Flying Rabbis Fight Swine Flu (+ Video)

    09/03/2009 6:44:10 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 5 replies · 434+ views
    BBC ^ | Wednesday, 12 August 2009
    A group of rabbis and Jewish mystics has taken to the skies over Israel, praying and blowing ceremonial horns in a plane to ward off swine flu. About 50 religious leaders circled over the country on Monday, chanting prayers and blowing horns, called shofars. The flight's aim was "to stop the pandemic so people will stop dying from it", Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri was quoted as saying in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. The flu is often called simply "H1N1" in Israel, as pigs are seen as unclean. SWINE FLU Swine flu is a respiratory disease thought to spread through coughing and sneezing...
  • Rabbis Meeting to Consider a Ban on Selling Houses to Arabs

    08/30/2009 12:05:27 PM PDT · by Nachum · 5 replies · 700+ views
    Israelnationalnews.com ^ | 8/30/09 | staff
    (IsraelNN.com) Hareidi and national-religious rabbis will meet Monday in Jerusalem to discuss ways of dealing with the Arab influx into Jewish neighborhoods in northern Jerusalem, as well as the purchasing of agricultural land in the Galilee by wealthy foreign Arabs. The rabbis are expected to call for an end to the phenomenon of sale of land and houses by Jews to Arabs. The organizer, Aryeh King, who heads the Israel Lands Fund, told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew service that he is hoping to see the rabbis issue a pronouncement that sale of land and houses to Arabs is forbidden.
  • Obama's conference call with 1,000 Rabbis on Health Care

    08/20/2009 10:41:36 AM PDT · by pajamahadin.com · 4 replies · 494+ views
    PajamaHadin ^ | August 20, 2009 | Michael Marshall
    There was a call with 1,000 Rabbis and Obama this week on Health Care: One Rabbi concluded among other things: Obama is really either advocating government control or doesn't understand how insurance works.
  • The Audacity Of Arrogantly Proclaiming A Partnership With God

    08/20/2009 10:38:48 AM PDT · by 84rules · 9 replies · 591+ views
    84rules News and Commentary Blog ^ | August 20, 2009 | 84rules
    Never has a sitting president had the arrogance or impudence to say what Obama said yesterday: The Audacity Of Arrogantly Proclaiming A Partnership With God 84rules August 20, 2009
  • Officials lambast NJ corruption after 44 arrested

    07/24/2009 9:08:58 AM PDT · by Jersey Republican Biker Chick · 40 replies · 1,030+ views
    Yahoo News ^ | Fri Jul 24, 8:47 am | DAVID PORTER
    NEWARK, N.J. – Officials are decrying political corruption in New Jersey after more than 40 people, among them rabbis and elected officeholders, were arrested in an investigation in which some were accused of laundering tens of millions of dollars and of black-market trafficking of kidneys and fake Gucci handbags.
  • NEW YORK POST - FBI ARRESTS - ONLY REPUBLICANS DENOTED, BUT NO DEMOCRATS IDENTIFIED

    07/23/2009 11:05:51 AM PDT · by slickfree · 24 replies · 1,221+ views
    NEW YORK POST ^ | July 23, 2009 | POST STAFF REPORT
    Why has the New York Post omitted the party affiliation of New Jersey politicians that were arrested today? All the remainder Democrats were not indicated (excess of seven), and NONE indicated of the Rabbis, and many many more are missing whether Democrats or Republicans. However, TWO Republicans were conveniently indicated ... something is ROTTEN with Post Staff Writers.
  • 100 Rabbis Prepare to Welcome Pontiff to Holy Land

    05/01/2009 4:20:10 PM PDT · by NYer · 11 replies · 452+ views
    ZNA ^ | April 30, 2009
    JERUSALEM, APRIL 30, 2009 (Zenit.org).- More than a hundred rabbis of various denominations will sign a message welcoming Benedict XVI to the Holy Land and encouraging dialogue between Jews and Christians. The presidents of the International Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Education, Adalberta and Armando Bernardini, told ZENIT that the message is due to be published on the Web site of an Israeli newspaper, "Ha'Arezt." The initiative is being promoted by one of the foundation's members, Rabbi Jack Bemporard, also director of the New Jersey based Center for Interreligious Understanding. From May 8 to 15 the Pope will visit the...
  • "We Are Embarrassed" (Cardinal O'Malley on the SSPX)

    01/31/2009 3:13:02 PM PST · by NYer · 48 replies · 1,235+ views
    WITL ^ | January 31, 2009 | Rocco Palmo
    Long a key voice in Catholic-Jewish relations, Cardinal Sean O'Malley OFM Cap. of Boston issued a response to the week's events late last night: The Vatican announced this week that the Holy Father has lifted the excommunications of four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X. I was pleased with the news which shows, once again, the Holy Father’s concern for unity and reconciliation in the Church.... [The Pope's] outreach to the communities who follow these bishops is just one more manifestation of his ardent desire to bring these people (which some estimate to be as many as...
  • Pope Emphasises His 'Solidarity With Jews' After Provoking Outrage

    01/28/2009 7:54:14 PM PST · by Steelfish · 8 replies · 364+ views
    Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | January 29, 2009
    Pope emphasises his 'solidarity with Jews' after provoking outrage by readmitting bishop who denies Holocaust By DAILY MAIL REPORTER 29th January 2009 Pope Benedict has expressed his 'full and unquestionable solidarity' with Jews, after outraging many by rehabilitating a bishop who denies the Holocaust. Speaking at his Wednesday audience, the German-born pope tried to heal the rift with Jews by saying the attempt to exterminate them in the Holocaust should remain a warning to all humanity. Recalling his visit to the Auschwitz death camp in 2006, Benedict condemned the 'pitiless killing of millions of Jews, innocent victims of blind racial...
  • Pope responds to Israeli rabbis (Jewish authorities threaten to sever ties)

    01/28/2009 2:25:27 PM PST · by NYer · 38 replies · 688+ views
    ansa ^ | January 28, 2009
    (ANSA) - Vatican City, January 28 - Pope Benedict XVI acted quickly on Wednesday to counter a threat from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to indefinitely sever relations with the Vatican over his decision to lift the excommunication for a traditionalist bishop who continued to deny the existence of the Holocaust. The move was announced by the Chief Rabbinate director general, Oded Weiner, who also said that a March 2-4 meeting in Rome with the Catholic Church's Commission for Religious Relations with Jews had been cancelled. At the center of the dispute is British-born Bishop Richard Williamson, one of...
  • Chief Rabbinate cuts ties with Vatican

    01/28/2009 11:11:13 AM PST · by forkinsocket · 50 replies · 1,539+ views
    The Jerusalem Post ^ | Jan 28, 2009 | MATTHEW WAGNER
    Pope Benedict XVI insisted on Wednesday that he felt "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews. Benedict spoke days after his decision to revoke the excommunication of a bishop who says no Jews were gassed during the Holocaust provoked an outcry among Jews. Benedict said Wednesday that he hoped the memory of the Holocaust would also serve as a warning against the "unpredictable power of evil when it conquers the hearts of men." He spoke during a public audience at the Vatican. The Vatican had already distanced itself from comments by bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied that 6 million Jews...
  • American Jewish Rabbis Show Solidarity with Vatican against Obama's Anti-Life Measures

    01/28/2009 10:49:45 AM PST · by wagglebee · 23 replies · 1,241+ views
    LifeSiteNews ^ | 1/28/09 | John-Henry Westen
    NEW YORK, January 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for Rabbinical Alliance of America, will be in Rome Thursday meeting with high ranking Vatican officials. While there he will express solidarity regarding the recent Vatican criticisms of US President Barack Obama and his executive order which has permitted US taxpayer funds to be given to organizations performing and lobbying for abortion internationally.  Levin will be representing over 800 Orthodox Jewish Rabbis who form the Rabbinical Alliance of America. His visit is being coordinated by the Rome office of Human Life International. Following Obama's overturning of the Mexico City...
  • Jews and the Catholic Church. The Rabbis of Italy Don't Like This Pope

    01/16/2009 6:45:26 AM PST · by Publius804 · 47 replies · 887+ views
    chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it ^ | January 16, 2009 | Sandro Magister
    Jews and the Catholic Church. The Rabbis of Italy Don't Like This Pope OMA, January 16, 2009 – In the area of geopolitics, the war in Gaza has sharpened the disagreements between the Catholic Church and Israel, as www.chiesa showed in its article on January 4. The hope is that Benedict XVI's trip to the Holy Land, thought to be scheduled for May, will diminish the mutual misunderstandings. Meanwhile, however, mainly because of Israeli intransigence, there is no progress in the negotiations to implement the 1993 accords between the Holy See and Israel. Nor is there any sign of the...
  • Muslim woman, rabbis to pray at inaugural service

    01/14/2009 4:57:44 PM PST · by markomalley · 20 replies · 832+ views
    AP ^ | 1/14/2009 | RACHEL ZOLL
    At past inaugurations, ceremonial prayers uttered on behalf of the incoming president drew about as much attention as the flags on the podium. Not this year. Barack Obama's choice of clergy is under scrutiny like no other president-elect before him, alternately outraging Americans on the left and the right as he navigates the minefield of U.S. religion. "I can't recall any prayers drawing so much attention," said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center who specializes in religion in public life. Gay advocates assailed Obama, while many conservative Christians were heartened, when he invited the Rev. Rick Warren,...
  • Exclusive: Rabbis for Obama Exposed as front group for radical Hamas appeasement supporters

    10/29/2008 1:09:21 PM PDT · by Winged Hussar · 9 replies · 351+ views
    Sultan Knish ^ | Sultan Knish
    When Rabbis for Obama was announced with great fanfare it was meant to reassure worried Jewish voters. The 300 Rabbis who signed on to the letter which stated that Barack Obama had "longstanding, stalwart support for Israel" and claimed that "Senator Obama is in the best position to restore faith in America as a leader in the fight against serious threats to Israel." But when you mix Obama and clergy together, the one thing you can count on is that they'll be left wing radicals who are anti-American and anti-Israel... and the Rabbis for Obama signers don't disappoint. In fact...
  • Obama and the Rabbis

    09/18/2008 10:14:55 AM PDT · by Jbny · 11 replies · 193+ views
    Commentary Magazine ^ | September 18, 2008 | John Podhoretz
    There’s no denying Barack Obama’s gifts, at least when it comes to a classic Democratic constituency teetering away from him — America’s Jews, who, as I noted yesterday, are showing signs of giving John McCain the largest share of their vote since Ronald Reagan in 1980. In a brilliant effort to shore up his support and stanch the bleeding, Obama held a conference call this morning with 900 rabbis to wish them a Happy New Year. The High Holy Days of the Jewish faith begin on the evening of the 29th of September with Rosh Hashanah, the first day of...
  • Body of Naftoli Smolyansky Found (body rises from bottom of Lake after prayers)

    09/03/2008 3:06:59 PM PDT · by Nachum · 15 replies · 353+ views
    Yeshivaworld.com ^ | September 2, 2008 | Yehuda Drudgestein
    9/01/08 3:12PM EST: [UPDATES IN EXTENDED ARTICLE] Credible sources tell YWN that the missing body of 39-year-old Naftoli Smolyansky Z”L, who went missing while on a boating trip in Lake Piru, California has just been found. Naftoli was in a boat on the lake with his 9-year-old son and his two daughters, ages 5 and 7 last Monday afternoon, when his youngest daughter fell overboard. He jumped in to save her, and managed to push his daughter back into the boat, but he R”L went under and did not resurface. Hundreds of people joined the massive search by air, land,...
  • Italian Rabbis Slam 'Improvement' in Good Friday Prayer (more details)

    02/07/2008 4:20:22 PM PST · by NYer · 13 replies · 505+ views
    Israel National News ^ | February 7, '08
    (IsraelNN.com) Two prominent Italian rabbis have sharply criticized the Vatican for its deleting two anti-Semitic remarks in Good Friday prayers and then replacing them with appeals for Jews to convert, according to the European Jewish Press. Pope Benedict earlier this week announced that the terms "blindness" and "darkness," referring to Jews, would be deleted. The Pope ordered the changes after complaints from an American "inter-religious" committee about the anti-Semitic words in the prayer.However, the new Latin text for the prayer states, "May the Lord enlighten them [the Jews] so that they recognize Jesus Christ as the savior of all men."...
  • Italian Rabbinical Assembly: Suspension of Dialogue (With Catholic Church)

    02/07/2008 2:22:50 PM PST · by Pyro7480 · 128 replies · 638+ views
    Rorae Caeli ^ | 2/7/2008 | New Catholic
    From the Italian daily Corriere della Sera: Italian Rabbinical Assembly: "Pause for reflection in the dialogue" with CatholicsThe opinion on the change of the Good Friday prayer: "An abandonment of the very conditions for dialogue" ROME - And now, a rupture. The Italian Rabbinical Asseembly considers necessary a "pause for reflection in the dialogue" with Catholics after the modification of the Good Friday prayer for the Jews. And it underlines that the modification decided by Pope Ratzinger is "an abandonment of the very conditions for dialogue". The Assembly states so in a note signed by its president, Rabbi Giuseppe Laras.
  • Orthodox Jewish Rabbinic Group Says Vote Against Pro-Abortion Candidates

    02/05/2008 1:51:41 PM PST · by camerakid400 · 13+ views
    Life News ^ | Feb 4 08 | Steven Ertelt
    Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- On the eve of Super Tuesday, the oldest Orthodox Jewish Rabbinic organization in the country issued a historic declaration on voting and abortion. The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada says Jewish voters should not vote for candidates who support abortion, calling them "antithetical" to Jewish values. Rabbi Yehuda Levin, a spokesman for the group, released a video message on Monday with the exhortation. "It is very important for our community to demonstrate its appreciation for our wonderful country by exercising our civic obligation to vote," he says. "However, it is even more...
  • MASS RABBINIC ARREST (At UN - Pictures)

    04/22/2007 6:28:08 PM PDT · by Salem · 9 replies · 538+ views
    The Hall Of The Goblin King ^ | 18 April, 2007 | Steg
    Yesterday, Rav Avi Weiss and the Jewish activist organization he founded, AMCHA: the Coalition for Jewish Concerns, coordinated a civil disobedience protest at the United Nations. Around 50 rabbis and rabbinical students, as well as a lay communal leader or few, participated in the protest. They prepared themselves in a staging area near the Iranian Mission to the UN — putting on talleisim and distributing signs — and after a few short speeches and rounds of slogan-shouting, they marched, singing ‘Am Yisra’eil Hhai, to the steps that go down past the Isaiah Wall across the street from the UN buildings.
  • Left-wing rabbis split over honoring anti-IDF group

    01/24/2007 4:19:04 AM PST · by Alouette · 1 replies · 158+ views
    Jerusalem Post ^ | Jan. 24, 2007 | Matthew Wagner
    Rabbis for Human Rights Israel (RHRI) is at odds with its sister organization in North America over an issue that goes to the heart of the debate over Zionism's use and misuse of military might to defend itself. During a board meeting Monday in Jerusalem, some leading members of RHRI strongly criticized Rabbis for Human Rights North America (RHR-NA) for honoring a New York-based legal advocacy group that sued two senior Israeli security officials for perpetrating "war crimes." On December 11, RHR-NA honored the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) with the Raphael Lemkin Award for its work combating purported torture...
  • New York Rabbi Finds Friends in Iran and Enemies at Home

    01/15/2007 7:30:11 AM PST · by shrinkermd · 29 replies · 561+ views
    New York Times ^ | 15 January 2007 | Fernanda Santos
    It was a bizarre sight: a cadre of Orthodox Jews, with their distinctive hats, beards and sidelocks, standing alongside President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran last month at a conference in Tehran debating the Holocaust. Among them was Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, spokesman and assistant director of a small anti-Zionist group with a foothold in this town in Rockland County, home to one of the nation’s largest communities of Hasidic Jews. Unlike Mr. Ahmadinejad and most of the others present, including the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, Rabbi Weiss does not deny or question the Holocaust; his grandparents died...
  • Conservative Jews ok gay rabbis

    12/06/2006 6:27:57 PM PST · by Anti-Bubba182 · 51 replies · 1,251+ views
    Reuters ^ | Dec 6, 2006 4:17pm ET27 | Michelle Nichols
    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Leaders of the Conservative Jewish movement opened the door on Wednesday to the ordination of gay rabbis and the recognition of gay marriage, but made it clear the more orthodox in the faith may go on opposing such liberalization. "We as a movement see the advocacy of pluralism and we know that people come to different conclusions," said Rabbi Kassel Abelson, speaking for the 25-member Rabbinical Assembly Committee on Jewish Law and Standards which issued a series of advisory reports. "These ... are accepted as guides so that the gays and lesbians can be welcomed into...
  • Germany ordains 'first' rabbis

    09/14/2006 11:13:01 AM PDT · by Republicain · 23 replies · 439+ views
    BBC News ^ | 09/14/2006
    A group of rabbis has been ordained in Germany for the first time since World War II and the destruction by the Nazis of the country's Jewish seminaries. Three Jewish graduates from the Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam were ordained in the eastern city of Dresden. More than 100,000 Jews live in Germany but there is a dearth of rabbis - there are only about 25 of them serving 100 congregations, a BBC reporter says. For years Germany has had to rely on rabbis imported from abroad. The ordination took place in Dresden's new synagogue which was rebuilt after the...
  • Conservative Jewish leaders moving to end ban on gay rabbis

    09/09/2006 6:50:59 PM PDT · by Alouette · 49 replies · 610+ views
    YNet ^ | Sept. 9, 2006
    Committee of Jewish scholars likely to roll back ban on ordaining gay rabbis. 'It is simply not natural to demand that they remain celibate,' one rabbi says, adding that movement has to 'interpret God's will' A key Conservative Jewish leader is organizing talks nationwide to tell synagogues that the movement will likely roll back its ban on ordaining openly gay rabbis by year's end. He and two religious law experts joining him at the meetings are trying to help congregations prepare for the confusion and discomfort to follow. Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative...
  • US rabbis urge change in IDF war code

    08/21/2006 8:30:25 AM PDT · by APRPEH · 25 replies · 784+ views
    JPOST ^ | Aug. 21, 2006 | MATTHEW WAGNER
    The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) has called on Israel to reevaluate its military rules of war in light of Hizbullah's "unconscionable use of civilians, hospitals, ambulances, mosques and the like as human shields, cannon fodder and weapons of asymmetric warfare." The RCA made the statement at the end of a three-day solidarity mission last week in conjunction with Emunah, the modern Orthodox women's organization, during which a contingent of RCA rabbis toured the North and South, visiting the injured and gathering impressions of the extent of the damage caused by the warfare. Rabbi Basil Herring, executive vice president of...
  • Woman heads rabbinical seminary for first time [So what?]

    06/30/2006 2:51:00 PM PDT · by Alouette · 5 replies · 227+ views
    YNet ^ | June 30, 2006
    Rabbi Dr. Einat Ramon appointed to serve as dean of conservative Schechter Rabbinical Seminary The Board of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem has appointed Rabbi Dr. Einat Ramon to serve as dean of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary . Ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1989, Rabbi Ramon was the first Israeli woman to be ordained as a rabbi. She is also the first woman to head a Conservative/Masorti rabbinical school. Rabbi Ramon has been a courageous spokesperson for the Masorti Movement on crucial issues such as the conversion bill and the right to hold egalitarian prayers...
  • Rabbis to Bush: Don't back West Bank withdrawal Say evacuation plan against Torah, U.S. interests

    06/29/2006 6:41:22 AM PDT · by Esther Ruth · 5 replies · 312+ views
    www.worldnetdaily.com ^ | June 29, 2006 | Aaron Klein
    Rabbis to Bush: Don't back West Bank withdrawal Say evacuation plan against Torah, U.S. interests Posted: June 29, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Aaron Klein KIBBUTZ NAHAL OZ, Israel – A group of prominent rabbis is calling on President Bush to refuse political and financial support for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to evacuate most of Judea and Samaria, stating the withdrawal is against U.S. interests, and that it violates basic tenets of Jewish law. "U.S. interests are being impacted by Israel's proposed retreat from terrorist strongholds in Judea and Samaria. In addition, as rabbis our obligation is to teach,...
  • Rabbis Forbid Hitchhiking at This Time

    06/29/2006 6:30:56 AM PDT · by Esther Ruth · 4 replies · 215+ views
    www.arutzsheva.net ^ | 16:11 Jun 29, '06 / 3 Tammuz 5766 | Hillel Fendel
    Rabbis Forbid Hitchhiking at This Time 16:11 Jun 29, '06 / 3 Tammuz 5766 by Hillel Fendel "One who takes a dangerous chance at this time endangers the entire public," leading religious-Zionist rabbis ruled. Hamas terrorists threaten to kidnap more Israelis. A ruling issued today by Rabbis Avraham Shapira, Dov Lior and others states that one may not stand in dangerous places to wait for rides. "One who takes an unreasonable chance in this matter," the ruling states, "endangers the entire public - because the government is liable to be forced to release terrorists." The rabbis also place the onus...
  • Decision time on gays in synagogues

    06/12/2006 7:38:16 AM PDT · by Alouette · 12 replies · 443+ views
    YNet ^ | June 12, 2006 | Rabbi Rodef Tzedek
    Conservative and Masorti rabbinical organizations must decide about how inclusive they will be on full participation by gays in Jewish, congregational life The mainstream Jewish community has not been in a hurry to embrace gay Jews as full participants in Jewish communal life. A cursory reading of the Orthodox press reveals the vile and outrageous statements made by too many Orthodox rabbis. There are all too few Orthodox shuls where gays may feel comfortable if they are out of the closet. The Reform (and Reconstructionist) Movement has been far more open and welcoming. But many observant gay Jews prefer to...
  • Immigration Bill Grants Illegals In-state Tuition

    04/09/2006 2:55:30 PM PDT · by Tolerance Sucks Rocks · 12 replies · 884+ views
    Newsmax Insider Report | April 9, 2006 | Newsmax
    1. Immigration Bill Grants Illegals In-state Tuition After the Senate Judiciary Committee approved and distributed a proposal for granting legal status to many undocumented aliens, conservatives were alarmed to discover that the 471-page bill makes illegal aliens eligible for in-state tuition costs. Under the proposal, illegals could pay the low tuition charged students who attend state universities in their home state, while legal residents of the U.S. would still be required to pay the much higher costs charged students who attend schools outside their state, the Washington Times reports. "This means that while American citizens from Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina,...
  • Anti-Israel Rabbis Vow Hamas Support

    03/21/2006 3:27:51 PM PST · by Hal1950 · 22 replies · 842+ views
    AFP ^ | 22 March 2006
    A group of anti-Zionist rabbis has visited the Palestinian parliament to pledge their support for the prospective Hamas-led government. The rabbis from the small ultra-Orthodox movement Neturei Karta, which this month sent a delegation to Iran, travelled to the West Bank town of Ram Allah to express their support for the Islamic group. The group rejects the existence of the state of Israel as contrary to Jewish law and believes the land should be returned to Palestinians. Neturei Karta believe that no Jewish state should be created before the coming of the messiah. "We are true Jews who have come...
  • Conservative Jews to Consider Ending a Ban on Same-Sex Unions and Gay Rabbis

    03/06/2006 6:25:46 AM PST · by mikey565 · 119 replies · 1,264+ views
    The New York Times ^ | March 6, 2006 | LAURIE GOODSTEIN
    In a closed-door meeting this week in an undisclosed site near Baltimore, a committee of Jewish legal experts who set policy for Conservative Judaism will consider whether to lift their movement's ban on gay rabbis and same-sex unions. In 1992, this same group, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, declared that Jewish law clearly prohibited commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples and the admission of openly gay people to rabbinical or cantorial schools. The vote was 19 to 3, with one abstention. Since then, Conservative Jewish leaders say, they have watched as relatives, congregation members and even fellow rabbis publicly...
  • Being kind to the cruel

    02/28/2006 6:53:16 PM PST · by Sabramerican · 20 replies · 569+ views
    JERUSALEM POST ^ | Feb. 28, 2006 | Caroline Glick
    Being kind to the cruel Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 28, 2006 On February 6, the General Synod of the Church of England voted to impose a selective secondary boycott on Israel. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams supported the motion. This was not Williams's first swipe against the Jewish state. To take just one example of his consistent anti-Israel bias, in June 2004, during a visit to Jerusalem, Williams dismissed protocol and harshly criticized Israel for building the security fence to protect its citizens from mass murder. Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reacted angrily to the synod's decision. In...
  • Rabbis slam 'evil government'

    02/11/2006 5:15:16 PM PST · by Alouette · 5 replies · 218+ views
    YNet ^ | Feb. 12, 2006 | Efrat Weiss
    Leaflets distributed at synagogues over weekend blast courts, permit violence against police Right-wing leaflets distributed in synagogues across the country over the weekend in the wake of violent clashes between settlers and security forces at the West Bank outpost of Amona featured scathing attacks against the government, courts, and police forces. "A government that acts against the people and its Torah is defined as a 'conspiracy of evil' and should be ignored," one such leaflet distributed across the nation read. The leaflet, entitled "Small World," also blasts High Court judges for allowing the evacuation of Amona to proceed and characterizes...
  • Rabbi's Son Nabs Slasher in Synagogue

    01/11/2006 1:13:47 PM PST · by Nachum · 8 replies · 421+ views
    AP ^ | Jan 11 3:44 PM US/Eastern | STEVE GUTTERMAN
    A knife-wielding man shouting "I will kill Jews!" attacked a synagogue in downtown Moscow Wednesday, slashing and stabbing at least eight people before the son of a rabbi wrestled him to the ground, officials and eyewitnesses said. Witnesses said the shaven-headed attacker yelled "Heil Hitler! as he aimed at victims' necks, heads or torsos in what appeared to be a well-planned attack. The attack at the Chabad Bronnaya synagogue came amid an increase in racist crimes and hate-group activity in Russia. Jewish leaders said it should send a message to Russian authorities and the public to fight prejudice. "If today's...
  • Rabbis convert India's 'lost tribe of Israel'

    09/27/2005 9:46:08 AM PDT · by SirLinksalot · 26 replies · 1,113+ views
    Worldnetdaily.com ^ | 9/27/2005 | Aaron Klein
    Rabbis convert 'lost tribe of Israel' Recognize 200 members of group believing it descended from Joseph ----------------------------------------------- Posted: September 26, 2005 11:03 p.m. Eastern By Aaron Klein © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com An official delegation of Israeli rabbis arrived in India last week and began converting to Judaism members of a group that believes it is one of the ten "lost tribes" of Israel, jump starting a process many hope will bring the tribe's remaining 7,000 members to the Jewish state. The Bnei Menashe say they are the descendants of Manasseh, one of biblical patriarch Joseph's two sons, and a grandson of...
  • (Bishop) Dolan to visit death camps during Jewish-Catholic trip

    09/11/2005 2:40:25 PM PDT · by NYer · 9 replies · 333+ views
    Journal Online ^ | September 9, 2005 | Tom Heinen
    Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan and six other Roman Catholic bishops from the United States will spend a day at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps later this month during a Jewish-Catholic study trip to Poland and Rome with three East Coast rabbis. I see (Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan) as a future cardinal and a very important leader of the Catholic community. - Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz,executive director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding at Sacred Heart University This is not the first time U.S. bishops have visited the Auschwitz-area camps, the largest of the Nazi-run camps during World War II. Some 1.5...
  • School Boots Teachers' Union Fueling A Debate Among Conservative Rabbis

    09/05/2005 5:20:37 AM PDT · by gobucks · 13 replies · 470+ views
    Forward ^ | 2 Sept 2005 | Jennifer Siegel
    Just days before the start of classes this week, the trustees of a Conservative Jewish day school in suburban Detroit pulled the plug on its teachers' union. The controversial move followed an August 16 decision by the State of Michigan Court of Appeals, which said that teachers in religious schools throughout the state do not have the right to unionize. In the wake of the ruling, which came down in response to teachers seeking to unionize at a Catholic high school, the Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit ended recognition of its own long-standing teachers' union. "Teachers can decide whether...
  • Jerrold Nadler's Two Faces on Terror

    06/13/2005 5:29:37 AM PDT · by SJackson · 18 replies · 1,196+ views
    FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | June 13, 2005 | Jacob Laksin
    Jerrold Nadler's Two Faces on Terror By Jacob LaksinFrontPageMagazine.com | June 13, 2005Last Friday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Patriot Act had already been adjourned, but Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic blimpish congressman from New York and one of the leftmost members of the House Judiciary Committee, was too wound up to care: “We are not besmirching the honor of the United States, we are trying to uphold it,” bellowed the hefty Nadler. By this, Nadler meant to defend his attacks on the alleged abuses of the (in fact) privileged  prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Thanks to the efforts of the...
  • Rabbis Look for Lost Flock (Went to India)

    06/04/2005 12:18:34 AM PDT · by nickcarraway · 6 replies · 495+ views
    Hindustan Times ^ | June 3, 2005 | SK Ahuja
    An exodus from the Promised Land has left Jewish religious leaders worried. Israeli youths, fresh out of their three-year mandatory army service, are leaving their strife-torn country and reaching India in droves in search of peace. More than 10,000 men and women make their way towards places like Manali, Dharamshala and Kasauli every year where they find peace in Hinduism, nature, and, sometimes, drugs. Many marry locals, convert to Hinduism and cut off all contact with family in Israel. “We find peace here. This is a nice place to unwind after facing hardships back in Israel which is facing a...
  • Jewish-Catholic unity might be pope's legacy

    03/02/2005 10:31:19 AM PST · by NYer · 27 replies · 780+ views
    Newsday ^ | March 1, 2005 | RITA CIOLLI
    Prominent Jewish and Catholic leaders meeting in New York yesterday said the spirit of respect and cooperation between the two religions forged by Pope John Paul II is now so strong that it would continue beyond his papacy. "I am optimistic that what this pope has done for the last 26 years cannot be reversed," said Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Vatican council responsible for Jewish-Catholic relations. He added that "everyone can only be happy about the progress that has been made, which is so important for peace in the world." The World Jewish Congress is hosting the two-day...
  • Rabbis Call for World Jewry to Stop Disengagement

    02/25/2005 9:57:03 AM PST · by Nachum · 6 replies · 345+ views
    Arutz 7 ^ | 2-25-05 | staff
    In speeches and in open letters, respected rabbis and Hassidic leaders are calling upon Jews the world over to join the struggle against the government's plan to withdraw from parts of Israel. In speeches and in open letters, respected rabbis and Hassidic leaders are calling upon Jews the world over to join the struggle against the government's plan to withdraw from parts of the Land of Israel. In coming days, the Pikuach Nefesh organization, made up of rabbis opposed to relinquishing Israeli territory, will publicize a strongly-worded open letter calling upon rabbis and Jewish leaders worldwide to put pressure on...
  • The true threat to hesder (Israeli Military Yeshivot)

    10/24/2004 10:25:45 PM PDT · by Alouette · 10 replies · 333+ views
    Jerusalem Post ^ | Oct. 25, 2004
    Many leading rabbis in hesder yeshivas – which combine religious studies with military service – have lately endorsed appeals to their student-soldiers to shun participation in the implementation of the projected disengagement from Gaza and, more specifically, to play no part in evicting Jewish residents. This has instantly produced the expected political reactions, including demands from Labor's Amram Mitzna and Ophir Pines-Paz that special arrangements for hesder conscripts be abrogated. MK Matan Vilna'i (Labor) went a step further and urged in an Israel Radio interview last Thursday that the entire hesder framework be disbanded. There may be a kernel of...
  • Rabbis call for IDF to hit civilians if needed

    09/07/2004 12:22:58 PM PDT · by yonif · 13 replies · 343+ views
    Jerusalem Post ^ | Sep. 7, 2004 | MATTHEW GUTMAN AND RONIT SELA
    A group of prominent right wing rabbis on Tuesday issued a potentially inflammatory public call on the government to fight terrorism more tenaciously and to heed no difference between civilian and combatant in battle. The call by West Bank, Gaza, and right wing rabbis from Israel proper, arrived just a few hours after an IDF strike in Gaza killed 15 people – all of them Hamas members, according to a Hamas spokesman. The group of rabbis, headed by former MK and Chairman of the popular Bnei Akiva youth movement Haim Drukman (National Religious Party), said the army's policy in Palestinian...
  • Rabbis Proclaim Absolute Right to Self-Defense

    09/07/2004 8:01:31 AM PDT · by yonif · 10 replies · 371+ views
    Israel National News ^ | 16:53 Sep 07, '04 / 21 Elul 5764
    Leading rabbis, among them heads of hesder yeshivot and members of the Yesha Rabbis Council, issued a proclamation today stating that Israel's security needs override the welfare of Arab civilians living in the terror-infested Palestinian Authority. "There is no need to avoid hitting or even killing Palestinians who are not involved in terrorism when this will harm the efforts to defend Israeli lives," the statement reads. "Jewish Law provides that during war time, such as that which we are now experiencing, there is no difference between the populace and the army. If a danger arises to Israeli soldiers or to...