Free Republic

Israel's Cabinet voted Sunday to allow non-Orthodox Jewish prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a move advocates said marked a historic show of government support for liberal streams of Judaism. The issue is of particular importance to the Jewish community in the United States, where the more liberal Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism are dominant. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed the plan in an attempt to please American Jews, a key source of support for Israel, despite stiff opposition by ultra-Orthodox and religious nationalist elements in Israel who are key members of his own government. [...] According...

As a rabbinic student in 1980s New York, Denise Eger lived away from other seminarians. She quietly started a group for fellow gay and lesbian students, but held the meetings in another borough. By the time of her ordination, she wasn’t formally out, but her sexuality was known, and no one would hire her. Later, she took the only job offered, with a synagogue formed expressly as a religious refuge for gays. Since then, the Reform Jewish movement—Eger’s spiritual home since childhood—has traveled a long road toward recognizing and embracing same-sex relationships. That journey has led this week to Philadelphia,...

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has expressed concern at the appointment of Rabbi Richard Jacobs as head of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ). Included among our concerns is the fact that Rabbi Jacobs is a member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of J Street, the extremist, George Soros-funded lobby group that takes positions to the left of the Israeli Labor and far-left Meretz parties, recently opposed sanctions on Iran, and urged President Barack Obama not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning as “illegal” Jewish homes and communities in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. Jacobs is also a...

The rabbi who co-conducted the Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding was Rabbi James Ponet, a Reform rabbi with deep connections to some of the most radical elements of the American Jewish community. Know your rabbis.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the head of the Union for Reform Judaism has is a fraud, the man keeps on making statements about Israel in General and Jerusalem that he has no right to make without explaining that the Reform Movement does not have the same relationship to Israel as much of the rest of Judaism. For example two years ago he called for Israel to divide Jerusalem: The president of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, promised Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week that his movement would support the government if a peace treaty with the Palestinians is...

It is by now a well-documented fact that liberal Protestant denominations in the United States have fallen on hard times. In the mainline churches that once dominated American religious life—and from which emerged the country’s political and cultural elites—the pews have been emptying since as long ago as the 1960’s.1 As the average age of churchgoers edges ever upward, the challenge of recruiting both members and qualified clergy looms larger still, adding to the general sense of demoralization and desuetude. In the meantime, membership in conservative Christian denominations, particularly the evangelical churches, has been swelling. Against this backdrop, the seeming...

Reform Judaism in the 19th century rejected the Orthodox observance of the Sabbath as a 24-hour day of rest, but the demands of living in the 21st century are compelling reasons to once more embrace the Sabbath, a leading Reform rabbi said Saturday. The message came as nearly 6,000 Jews, wearing yarmulkes and bluejeans, prayer shawls and Ugg boots, gathered for a five-day convention of the Union for Reform Judaism. The Jewish denomination, which claims the most adherents of any in the United States today, is characterized by a belief that each generation seeks to bring contemporary expression to the...

1. Norman Hsu Gave to Kennedy, Kerry, Obama, Others Already posted separately on the forum. 2. Hillary Fundraiser Curses Out GOP When Florida’s Republican Party attacked Hillary Clinton for enlisting a fundraiser once accused of racketeering, the fundraiser responded with a profanity-laced tirade — and later apologized. Former Hialeah, Fla., Mayor Raul Martinez was brought up on federal corruption charges nearly two decades ago. He was convicted but successfully appealed, and two more trials ended in hung juries, the Miami Herald reported. After the Democrat hosted a Clinton fundraiser at his home on Monday, Sept. 10, Republican Party of Florida...

No reader would be faulted for thinking that the title of this column is a spoof. After all, Reform Judaism, like liberal Christian denominations, is exquisitely sensitive to women's equality. Thus, Reform Judaism was the first major Jewish denomination to ordain women, and the first to have its seminaries discourage referring to God as "he." One would think, then, that the last thing the head of a movement devoted to women's equality would endorse is the covering of women's faces with a veil. This is one of the most dehumanizing and degrading practices that has ever been foisted on women....

A J Mast for The New York TimesAlvin H. Rosenfeld is the author of an essay critical of liberal Jews that has generated heated debate. The American Jewish Committee, an ardent defender of Israel, is known for speaking out against anti-Semitism, but this conservative advocacy group has recently stirred up a bitter and emotional debate with a new target: liberal Jews. An essay the committee features on its Web site, ajc.org, titled “ ‘Progressive’ Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism,” says a number of Jews, through their speaking and writing, are feeding a rise in virulent anti-Semitism by questioning...

A group of reputed Jewish leaders met in New York last week to devise a strategy to deal with what kosher Chicken Littles like the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman see as the emerging threat of the Religious Right. If Christian conservatives are the menace Foxman and Friends believe, the problem is much worse than they imagine. According to a late November FOX News poll, most Americans are what Foxman and Reform Jewish leader Eric Yoffie would call a clear and present danger to democracy and pluralism. To wit: 59 percent of Americans think Christianity is under attack here; 81 percent...

Liberals who want you to be liberal are moral, but Christians who want you to be Christian are bigots. AMERICANS CONSTANTLY hear and read about the dangers emanating from the religious right. But what about the dangers from the religious left? Ever hear about those dangers? In fact, do you ever hear about a religious left at all? Probably not. My Google search of "religious right" yielded 3,890,000 items. A search of "religious left" yielded 276,000. And that search included right-wing websites. My quick survey of a "mainstream," i.e. liberal, news medium revealed an even more lopsided result: New York...

Liberals are feeling their oats these days. The president’s poll ratings are down. Support for the Iraq war has eroded. Democrats in Congress are on the offensive charging the White House with misleading the country into war. An aide to the Vice President has been indicted, Congressman Tom DeLay is also facing charges, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is under the spotlight for stock transactions by his blind trust. It is, in other words, a perfect storm of opportunity for the left, which must also mean that it is time for leaders of major Jewish organizations on the political...

<p>The Jewish Community Relations Council, the major public policy voice of the Jewish community in Greater Boston, has voted overwhelmingly to endorse same-sex marriage.</p> <p>The endorsement, by an umbrella organization representing 42 Jewish groups, is part of a growing effort by liberal religious voices to counter the strong opposition to same-sex marriage voiced by the state's Catholic bishops. The bishops of the state's four Catholic dioceses today plan to announce a major campaign to defeat same-sex marriage.</p>

BOSTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The major public policy voice of the Jewish community in greater Boston has voted overwhelmingly to back same-sex marriage. The endorsement by the Jewish Community Relations Council, an umbrella organization representing 42 Jewish groups, is part of a growing effort by liberal religious voices to counter the strong opposition to same-sex marriage voiced by the state's Catholic bishops, the Boston Globe said Friday. The bishops of the state's four Catholic dioceses planned to announce a major campaign to defeat same-sex marriage Friday. Several Jewish organizations had already endorsed same-sex marriage, including the largest Jewish denomination...

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to my wife Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz for encouraging me to explore the subject of rabbinic officiation at same-sex commitment ceremonies in greater depth, and from perspectives that I might not have ordinarily. What follows is a variation of a talk she asked me to prepare for a forum at her synagog Temple Adat Shalom of Poway, CA, on Friday evening after services May 24, 1997. We had presumed, given my past involvement with the Gay and Lesbian Community, that I would have to convince myself of the opposing position in order to...

<p>Returning from a trip to the West Bank town of Jenin last year, Arik Ascherman reflected on Abraham's argument with God over the fate of Sodom.</p> <p>The Sodomites' sinful ways so angered God that he resolved to destroy the city. "Will the innocent be destroyed along with the guilty?" Abraham asked. God agreed to spare Sodom if 10 righteous people were found.</p>