Two reform clergy to take their liberal spirit to Israel

By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
Published on January 18, 2012

Rabbi Don Goor of Temple Judea and Cantor Evan Kent of Temple Isaiah announced to their congregations on Jan. 11 that they will be moving to Israel next summer. Both will leave behind successful careers in Los Angeles as they jump into the rich but contentious world of liberal Judaism in Israel.

Clergy push Debbie Friedman song

Published on January 13, 2012

About two weeks before she died, Debbie Friedman stood with Rabbi Joy Levitt at the piano in Levitt’s Manhattan apartment, and she shared with her friend a melody that the legendary singer and composer would never have the chance to record.

Clergy object to LAPD’s methods of clearing Occupy L.A.

By Jonah Lowenfeld
Published on December 7, 2011

The members of an interfaith group of clergy who ministered to Occupy Los Angeles protesters throughout the two-month occupation of the lawn around Los Angeles City Hall are objecting to what they call a distressing “level of violence and brutality” used by the 1,400 Los Angeles Police Department officers who cleared the encampment from City Hall Park in the early morning hours of Nov. 30.

Jewish activists and clergy to join Occupy L.A. with sukkah outside City Hall

By Ryan Torok
Published on October 11, 2011

Since the beginning of this month, a group of Angelenos has gathered near downtown’s City Hall as part of Occupy Los Angeles, its version of the much-publicized Occupy Wall Street — a protest movement calling for reforms to the U.S. political and economic systems.

Clergy lobby against foreign food aid cuts

Published on September 14, 2011

Jewish clergy and educators lobbied Congress to maintain food aid to foreign countries.

Clergy, Bibi urge Pollard release

Published on January 4, 2011

More than 500 clergy signed a letter to President Obama urging clemency for Jonathan Pollard. The letter was delivered a day before Prime Minister Benjanim Netanyahu reportedly sent a letter to Obama issuing a formal clemency request. Netanyahu was scheduled to read his letter Tuesday evening to a Knesset plenum discussion. "After more than two and a half decades in prison, Mr. Pollard's health is declining," reads the letter sent Monday from rabbis representing all streams, as well as a number of leading Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy. "He has repeatedly expressed remorse for his actions, and by all accounts has served as a model inmate. Commuting his sentence to time served would be a wholly appropriate exercise of your power of clemency -- as well as a matter of basic fairness and American justice. It would also represent a clear sense of compassion and reconciliation -- a sign of hope much needed in today's world of tension and turmoil."

VIDEO: Tel Aviv rally protests religious persecution in China

Published on August 9, 2008

Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy lead rally protesting Chinese persecution of Falun Gong and China's involvement in Sudan.

Latino clergy get firsthand look at Israel

By Brad A. Greenberg
Published on June 19, 2008

Tony Solorzano had dreamed of seeing Israel. At 54, he'd spent countless Sundays at the pulpit and weekdays on Radio Zion talking about the land of Abraham and Jacob and David -- and Jesus

When the rabbi talks politics from the pulpit

By Amy Klein
Published on March 27, 2008

In 2006, Rabbi Nancy Myers of Westminster's Temple Beth David used her Rosh Hashanah sermon to address the horrors of the Abu Ghraib scandals.

She was about to make a point about acting morally as Jews when a congregant walked down the sanctuary's aisle with his hands crossed in a time-out signal. Myers, new at the time to the Reform synagogue, thought the interruption was because someone had had a heart attack, so she stopped talking.

A spiritual boost in Simi

By Sue Fishkoff
Published on March 27, 2008

Three-dozen rabbis and cantors are sitting in silent meditation in a sun-filled room at the Brandeis-Bardin Campus at American Jewish University in Simi Valley.

They open their eyes and Rabbi Sheila Weinberg guides them in a mindfulness exercise.

Clergy sexual misconduct: What’s being done to rein in abuse?

By Eugene L. Meyer
Published on January 11, 2007

Even as the Catholic Church has been rocked by a massive pedophilia scandal in recent years, the Jewish community also has been buffeted by high-profile cases of sexual impropriety involving rabbis and other authority figures.How extensive is the problem of clergy sex abuse in the Jewish community? It depends on which criteria are used as a yardstick.

Awareness Center and other blogs draw praise and scorn

By Eugene L. Meyer
Published on January 11, 2007

There is no unabridged database of rabbinic sexual abusers. But there is the Awareness Center. It's not a physical place, but a Baltimore post office box, cellphone number and Web site.

Is molestation being swept underneath the Eruv?

By Eugene L. Meyer
Published on January 11, 2007

Within Jewish circles, much of the focus on sexual predators has centered on the Orthodox community, particularly its more ultra-religious precincts, where some contend that clergy sex abuse is more hidden -- and possibly more widespread -- than elsewhere. Whether or not those contentions are true, the problem in that community was spotlighted by two recent episodes in the fervently Orthodox, or haredi, community.

How one Boston synagogue met the challenge of the cantor’s sexual abuse

By Richard Greenberg
Published on January 11, 2007

As an attorney representing several victims of sexually predatory Catholic priests, Mark Itzkowitz has witnessed the church's pedophilia scandal from an almost too-close-for-comfort vantage point. Not long ago, Itzkowitz's life took a surreal turn when he found himself confronting clergy sexual abuse from a different perspective: The problem had come home to roost in his own synagogue.

Briefs

Published on February 3, 2005

With the charred remains of Israeli Bus No. 19 as a backdrop, about 700 Angelenos gathered Jan. 30 at the Museum of Tolerance to take a stand against suicide bombings.

Defining Family

By Yehuda Lev
Published on November 20, 2003

A few months ago, in these pages, I described a brief visit to Los Angeles to attend the wedding of my daughter, Dafna, 42, and

her fiancé, Scott, 36 ("Father of the Bride," July 11). It was a first marriage for both and celebrated without benefit of clergy -- Scott being Christian and Dafna, Jewish.

This drew some criticism from readers who felt that I was amiss in not discouraging my daughter from marrying a non-Jew. One, in fact, reminded me that some Jews sit shiva when such a marriage takes place and regard the offending child as dead. It seemed to me that is a bit strong. There was also a time when adulterers were stoned, but we seem to have progressed beyond that. (More to the point perhaps, how does one tell a 42-year-old daughter whom she should marry?)

An Appeal to the Clergy of All Faiths

By Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis
Published on April 4, 2002

Colleagues in faith, we must act together now. We owe it to our respective faiths and our common calling.

Reform Rabbis: Same-Sex Ceremonies Kosher

By James D
Published on March 30, 2000

Whatever you want to call it, the Reform rabbis' final decision on Jewish same-sex commitment ceremonies is being touted as "groundbreaking" and a major step forward for gay and lesbian Jews.