Rabbis

The winter assault on the Gaza Strip was officially portrayed in Israel as an attempt to quell rocket fire by militants of Hamas. But some soldiers say they also were lectured about a more ambitious aim: to banish non-Jews from the biblical land of Israel. "This rabbi comes to us and says the fight is between the children of light and the children of darkness," a reserve sergeant said, recalling a training camp encounter.

Israeli police detained five women for wearing prayer shawls at the Western Wall on Thursday, days after a new proposal emerged to set aside part of the holy site for men and women to pray together. Female worshippers at the sacred site are barred from performing religious rituals that Orthodox Jewish religious authorities say are solely for men. Women have repeatedly been detained for violating those rules, a continuing clash between the Orthodox rabbis who steer Israeli religious institutions and more liberal strains of Judaism in which women can use prayer shawls and lead congregations as rabbis.

For an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, Shmuley Boteach has a deeply unorthodox streak. The bestselling author and TV host has written books on "Kosher Sex," "Dating Secrets of the 10 Commandments" and his relationship with the late pop star Michael Jackson. But nothing he has done in a career as one of America's best-known rabbis has caused quite the stir of his latest book. Even before its publication this month, Boteach came under withering attack in his own Orthodox community, with critics accusing him of exploiting controversy to boost sales and some going so far as to accuse him of heresy.

The private investigator whose video recordings ignited a kosher meat controversy across Los Angeles denied being paid by other distributors, saying his probe of Doheny Glatt Kosher meat market “felt like the right thing to do.” A video shot by investigator Eric Agaki aired on KTLA-TV in March, purporting to show workers at Doheny bringing in boxes of meat late at night without the required supervision of the mashgiach -- the kosher supervisor...

Police arrested 21 rabbis as they chanted and prayed outside the Soviet Embassy today to protest what one organizer called "an ongoing, silent holocaust" in the Soviet Union and its policies on Jewish emigration. The protest occurred on the eve of the scheduled trial in District of Columbia Superior Court of 24 other rabbis and one Lutheran pastor in connection with a similar demonstration on May 1.

Re "Rabbis criticized for Gaza stance," March 25 Wow! Israel's army uses rabbis to serve as chaplains. Who could've figured that? Next we'll be told they minister in Hebrew. Sounds like a disproportionate praying force versus Gaza Arabs, who probably don't have a single rabbi in their chaplain corps. Joe Siegman Los Angeles -- To the almost 1,400 Palestinians killed during the winter assault on the Gaza Strip, it really doesn't matter what the military rabbis told the soldiers.

In reference to the Dec . 4 article by Scott Graves about the Conejo Valley Winter Shelter Program, the process was described as involving pastors from local churches who refer people to the shelter. In fact, the program includes, along with the churches, three (all) of the local synagogues and their rabbis. I point this out because one of the glorious aspects of the Winter Shelter is the ecumenical dimension of the program. This program has had a unifying impact on the entire religious community here in the Conejo Valley.

Reviving rich prewar Jewish traditions, senior rabbis from Israel and Russia on Tuesday helped inaugurate the first Orthodox rabbi to be ordained in Hungary since the Holocaust. The congregation of about 300 Orthodox Jews sang and clapped as Shlomo Koves, 23, was inducted at the tiny Chabad Lubavitch synagogue. Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar of Russia and former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu of Israel joined Budapest Rabbi Boruch Oberlander in placing a prayer shawl around Koves' shoulders.

Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis is worried that America is in danger of losing the "unum" in our national motto, "E Pluribus Unum" ("Out of many, one"). Preacher, writer, thinker and nationally known leader of the largest local temple, Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, Schulweis fears that "we in the Valley and in the nation are in danger of losing that overarching connection that joins us together." "Consider how feeble our interfaith activities in our communities [are]," he said.

A New York rabbi's assistant accused of sexually molesting a 15-year-old girl during an airplane flight has been indicted on a charge of sexual abuse of a minor. A federal grand jury issued the indictment in Los Angeles on Tuesday, charging that Yehudah Friedlander, 44, "knowingly engaged in a sexual act with a 15-year-old female" aboard a commercial airline flight from Australia to Los Angeles.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched an investigation into the Doheny Glatt Kosher meat market as controversy brews over the integrity of products sold there. The owner of Doheny, Michael Engelman, faces accusations of selling meat that was not properly certified under kosher rules. Last week, a council of rabbis pulled Doheny's kosher certification and, in a statement Friday, raised the possibility of "legal action. " Tuesday, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service confirmed that the Doheny market is under investigation, adding yet another item to its mounting pile of problems.

After more than two decades in prison, David Ranta walked out of a Brooklyn courtroom a free man Thursday, no longer charged with murdering a rabbi in one of the city's more well-known homicides.  “To say I'm sorry for what you've endured would be an understatement.… But I say it anyway,” Judge Miriam Cyrulnik said before releasing Ranta. “I'm overwhelmed. I feel like I'm underwater, swimming. Like I said from the beginning, I had nothing to do with this case,” Ranta told reporters after leaving state court.

For a long time, the story of the four chaplains was everywhere. In classrooms, posters showed the men of different faiths, arms linked in prayer, braced against the waves engulfing the deck of their torpedoed troop ship on Feb. 3, 1943. They had given their life preservers to frantic soldiers and urged troops paralyzed with fear to jump into the icy North Atlantic before they were sucked down by the sinking ship's whirlpool. A postage stamp in 1948 honored the two Protestant ministers, the Catholic priest and the rabbi.

The title character of "The Rabbi's Cat" is not your everyday cartoon fluffball. He's scrawny, apparently hairless and unapologetically disputatious. The animated world he inhabits is no kid-friendly adventure but a philosophical quarrel in the form of a frenetic road trip through 1930s Africa. Based on several volumes of the graphic novel series by Joann Sfar, the hand-drawn film is directed by Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux, who use a rich palette and a mix of visual styles ranging from blunt to dazzling.

JERUSALEM - It's different each time, the sensation driven by my religious body temperature at the moment, each occasion leavened by the vicissitudes of life, by doubt, skepticism, spiritual immobility or vague rhapsody - and certainly by my own vanities. One first has to get past the sense of being an intruder, even if one is incontrovertibly Jewish, because the landlords of Jerusalem's Western Wall, a conglomerate of stern, bearded men from a variety of ecclesiastic tribes, are rather possessive of their default contract with the place.

Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, considered one of his generation's most influential religious arbiters, died Wednesday at Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center. He was 102 and had been in declining health. Elyashiv's rulings left a deep mark on many Jews who followed his interpretation of religious writings concerning contemporary issues; for example, whether to keep a patient on life support. Other decisions influenced Israeli politics, as the rabbi was the head authority of United Torah Judaism, a small but powerful political party.

Washington police arrested 21 rabbis as they chanted and prayed outside the Soviet Embassy to protest what one organizer called "an ongoing, silent holocaust" in the Soviet Union. The protest occurred on the eve of the scheduled trial in Washington of 24 other rabbis and one Lutheran pastor in connection with a similar demonstration on May 1.

Forty rabbis visiting from North America to focus on improving relations between Germans and Jewish Americans joined Andreas Nachama, the leader of Berlin's Jewish community, in prayer at a Holocaust memorial desecrated by vandals. "As rabbis and Jews, our response to desecration is consecration," said American Rabbi Marc Schneier. The stone memorial stands at the site of a Berlin synagogue destroyed by Nazis.

At Mission San Juan Capistrano, founded centuries ago to spread the Christian faith, Rabbi Allen Krause started an annual interfaith conference in 1994 because he felt that Orange County's religious groups were too insular. About 600 people attended the first Religious Diversity Faire, with spiritual leaders from more than a dozen faiths holding workshops on their beliefs and practices. The event was staged for 15 more years. Providing a window into the religious beliefs of others was a recurring theme for Krause, who was recognized as a trailblazer in the county's interfaith movement.

For an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, Shmuley Boteach has a deeply unorthodox streak. The bestselling author and TV host has written books on "Kosher Sex," "Dating Secrets of the 10 Commandments" and his relationship with the late pop star Michael Jackson. But nothing he has done in a career as one of America's best-known rabbis has caused quite the stir of his latest book. Even before its publication this month, Boteach came under withering attack in his own Orthodox community, with critics accusing him of exploiting controversy to boost sales and some going so far as to accuse him of heresy.