Free Republic

A proposed student resolution to ban Sabra company products from the dining hall of a California university “is about more than hummus,” the campus rabbi leading the opposition to the boycott told The Algemeiner. “People ask what the big deal is, because even if the motion does pass the University of California Riverside Student Senate, it’s up to administrators to decide what is served at the school,” said Chabad on Campus director Rabbi Matisyahu Devlin, ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “But Jewish students are afraid; they are disturbed. If the motion passes, the message is clear: We don’t want you here,...

With Hollywood celebs, far-left activists, and even some congressional Democrats still unwilling to accept President-elect Donald Trump’s surprise victory in November's democratic elections, disavowing their new Commander in Chief with slogans like “Not My President” and a movement to boycott the inauguration, one prominent left-wing rabbi has found his own unique way to protest the president.Shmuly Yanklowitz, an Open Orthodox rabbi and dean of the Valley Beit Midrash in Phoenix, Arizona, has responded to the election of the 45th President of the United States by rewriting the traditional Shabbat prayer for the US President — so as to avoid actually...

Rabbi Marvin Hier has known Charles and Seryl Kushner — Jared Kushner’s parents and Donald Trump’s in-laws — for decades. The Hiers and the Kushners have gone to the same kosher for Passover resort, the Arizona Biltmore, over the years. The Kushner family, prominent real estate developers, have also been generous donors to the Simon Wiesenthal Center founded by Hier, for which he now serves as dean. But the Los Angeles-based Hier said he was shocked three weeks ago when a Trump aide invited him to offer a prayer at the presidential inauguration. The 77-year-old rabbi said he accepted immediately...

EW YORK (JTA) – Conservative Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom has been expelled from the Rabbinical Assembly, the movement’s rabbis’ association, for performing interfaith weddings. An ordained Conservative rabbi for 44 years, Rosenbloom was expelled by unanimous vote last month after a hearing of the R.A.’s Executive Council. Since 1972, the Conservative movement has prohibited its rabbis from officiating at or even attending intermarriages. Rosenbloom told JTA the council offered to retain his membership in exchange for a promise not to perform any more intermarriages. Rosenbloom declined the offer.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the chief rabbi of Efrat and head of and head of the Ohr Torah Stone institutions, said in an interview with Channel 7 that he believes Trump’s victory is auspicious both for the world and for the State of Israel. “This is a victory for the ‘common American,’” he said. “The US does not like hypocrisy and is very much in favor of equality and democracy.” “Clinton,” he said, “is the opposite of that, and there was a lot of talk about her corruption and the large sums of money she took from special interests, and Trump...

Assailant reportedly shouted 'Hitler was right' at 19-year-old rabbinical student before beating him in middle of Boca Raton street. A 19-year-old rabbinical student was verbally and physically assaulted in Boca Raton, Florida last Saturday, according to reports Wednesday. WPTV Channel 5 said the student was walking on 2nd Street when the assailant, riding a blue mountain bike, shouted at him that "Jews should go back to Auschwitz. Hitler was right." The young man, who is studying for his rabbinic ordination at the Boca Raton Chabad center, allegedly then replied: "Why don’t you come back here and say that?” The cyclist...

The attacker, who is understood to have been arrested, shouted the Islamic phrase meaning God is great during the attack, according to reports in French media. The 62-year-old victim, who is described as belonging to the orthodox Hasidic sect, was injured in the attack in the Jewish Quarter, 500 metres from the Great Synagogue of Strasbourg. Named locally as Chalom Levy, he took refuge in a nearby bar befofe being taken to hospital. Mendel Samama, a Strasbourg rabbi who visited him at the hospital, said Mr Levy described surviving the attack as a “miracle”.

PLEASANTVILLE, NY (ChurchMilitant.com) - A New York rabbi is claiming God is transgender. In an op-ed published Friday in the New York Times, Rabbi Mark Sameth of the Pleasantville Community Synagogue maintains the Hebrew Bible's "highly elastic" view of gender leaves open the possibility that God Himself is transgender. Citing various examples of pronoun usage found in several passages in Genesis, the rabbi comes to the conclusion that, "counter to everything we grew up believing, the God of Israel — the God of the three monotheistic, Abrahamic religions to which fully half the people on the planet today belong —...

In an August 12th op-ed piece for the New York Times entitled “Is God Transgender?,” Rabbi Mark Sameth claims that “the Hebrew Bible, when read in its original language, offers ‘a highly elastic view of gender’” and that, “Counter to everything we grew up believing, the God of Israel — the God of the three monotheistic, Abrahamic religions to which fully half the people on the planet today belong — was understood by its earliest worshipers to be a dual-gendered deity.”Are there any truths to these claims?Certainly not.For Rabbi Sameth, these are issues of social concern and not merely theological...

A conversation between two of the most distinguished rabbis in Israel indicates scholars of the Torah see unmistakable signs of the coming of the Messiah. What’s more, in the Messianic era, Christians will become a source of Torah learning, as believers in Jesus Christ rediscover the source of their beliefs in both Judaism and the Torah. The conversation took place between Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, both of whom are regarded as leading experts in the Torah. During the conversation, Rabbi Kanievsky reportedly predicted the imminent coming of the Messiah, before the end of the year after the...

A prominent New York rabbi who converted Ivanka Trump to Judaism has backed out of delivering the opening prayer at the GOP convention after critics slammed him for appearing to endorse her father. Haskel Lookstein — former head of the elite Ramaz School and the former rabbi of Kehilath Jeshurun, a tony Modern Orthodox synagogue on the Upper East Side — said he backed out because his planned invocation had become too “political.”

Dear Senator Cruz, As I follow your presidential campaign, I’ve often heard you speak of how your faith informs your policy positions and how the United States is a nation based on what you call “Judeo-Christian values.” Upon winning the Iowa Caucuses, you declared in your victory speech that “Judeo-Christian values built this nation.” The Constitution entitles you to your opinions and religious beliefs and even affords you the right to express those convictions in your pursuit of public office. But as a Jew and a rabbi, I am writing to ask you to please leave me, Judaism and my...

In response to Donald Trump's call for constructing a wall at our southern border so as to stem the illegal migrations into our country, Pope Francis indicated that Mr. Trump was "not a Christian," since, as the Pope says, "Christians build bridges, not walls." As a rabbi, it is not for me to decide what is Christian, however I can speak to what the Bible says about such matters. Throughout the Bible, certainly the Old Testament, God impels us to do those things necessary for self-defense, those things required to ensure safety from disease, and to protect a nation's borders...

A group of prominent Orthodox rabbis in Israel, the United States and Europe have issued a historic public statement affirming that Christianity is "the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations" and urging Jews and Christians to "work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era." "Jesus brought a double goodness to the world," the statement reads. "On the one hand he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically" and on the other hand "he removed idols from the nations," instilling them "firmly with moral traits."

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (WSVN) -- A disturbing photo that may be of a teen accused of killing a rabbi from New York in 2014 was uncovered Monday, by 7News. Law enforcement sources believe it shows Deandre Charles holding a semi-automatic weapon. The photo was obtained from a Facebook page under the name of Papito L. Franklins, which law enforcement sources believe, is a social media nickname used by Charles. The photo and page were both deleted hours after his arrest last week.

A religious Zionist from a Jewish settlement on the West Bank told mourners on Saturday during the funeral of an Israeli father and son gunned down by Palestinian terrorists that the attacks in Paris were deserved due to what Europeans "did to our people 70 years ago." The quote from Dov Lior, the chief rabbi of the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, was first reported by the Walla! news agency. "The wicked ones in blood-soaked Europe deserve it for what they did to our people 70 years ago," Lior said.

Rabbi Shimon Elharar, director of Chabad of Dead Sea, was stopped in traffic by a force greater than his car.Traffic horror stories in Israel are famous, and driving on highways in the Holy Land is reserved only for the brave at heart. It is well known that Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries are among the bravest rabbis in the world, of course. Last week even Chabad of Dead Sea director Rabbi Shimon Elharar met his match, running into a massive “traffic jam” on the highway alongside the Dead Sea. “It’s not only in Tel Aviv that one has to worry about getting stuck,”...

A few years ago "Rabbi" Eric Yoffie, a Reform clergyman spoke at an Islamic Society of North America convention, an anti-Semitic Muslim Brotherhood organization that supported Hamas, and denounced Dennis Prager for criticizing the Koran. At ISNA, Eric Yoffie sanctimoniously warned that... There exists in this country among all Americans — whether Jews, Christians, or non-believers — a huge and profound ignorance about Islam. It is not that stories about Islam are missing from our media; there is no shortage of voices prepared to tell us that fanaticism and intolerance are fundamental to Islamic religion, and that violence and...

Security cameras at Chabad of Mt. Olympus show two individuals vandalizing a Hyundai Sonata belonging to Rabbi Sholom Rodal, the Chabad’s rabbi, at 2 a.m. on the morning of June 24, according to Rodal as well as a police official. The two were caught on camera setting the car on fire. It was parked outside of the Rodal home on a residential street in Laurel Canyon where the home, which also serves as a synagogue, is located. Rodal said prayer books and tefillin that were in the car were destroyed, but he said nothing was stolen from the vehicle. “At...

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) -- Surveillance video has surfaced that may show a South Florida rabbi accused of inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl, giving a parent an envelope believed to contain money to stay quiet over the entire ordeal. The video, taken from a Miami Beach restaurant, appears to show a man who witnesses identified as Rabbi Steve Karro, sitting next to a woman and handing her an envelope. The woman's child, according to Miami Beach Police, was molested by Karro. They said he kissed the girl on the neck and touched her backside. A closer look at the video...