Tagged Rabbi David Wolpe

Amid identity crisis, Conservative Jews pay for rebranding

More than 200 members of United Synagogue Youth came to the opening session of the conference of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism in Schaumburg, Ill., Nov. 15, 2013. (Courtesy of USCJ)
November 24, 2015 / Uriel Heilman, JTA

NEWS ANALYSIS SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (JTA) – Conservative Judaism is at a crossroads. The movement’s constituents increasingly are leading lives at odds with the core values and rules of Conservative Judaism, especially when it comes to intermarriage. The number of Conservative Jews has shrunk by one-third over the last 25 years. And even some… Read more »

Sacred and profane: Philip Roth, onetime ‘enfant terrible,’ gets seminary honor
May 25, 2014 / Beth Kissileff, JTA
Philip Roth receives an honorary doctorate at the Jewish Theological Seminary's commencement in New York on May 22, 2014. (Ellen Dubin Photography)

(JTA) — “What is being done to silence this man?” an American rabbi asked in a 1963 letter to the Anti-Defamation League. He was talking about the novelist Philip Roth, whose early novels and short stories cast his fellow American Jews in what some considered a none-too-flattering light. Fast-forward… Read more »

At Federation event, Rabbi Wolpe extols power of kindness
February 27, 2014 / Sheila Wilensky, AJP Associate Editor
(L-R): Sharon Glassberg, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona vice president; Rabbi David Wolpe; Brenda Landau, JFSA senior vice president; and Stuart Mellan, JFSA president and CEO, at “Together” event Feb. 12. (Martha Lochert)

A haimish (homey, folksy) Rabbi David Wolpe used humor and storytelling to entertain and enlighten a crowd of more than 500 at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s “Together” event on Feb. 12 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. “When I grew up Jewish schools were called parochial. I… Read more »

‘Most influential rabbi in America’ to speak at free JFSA event
January 30, 2014 / Sheila Wilensky, AJP Associate Editor
Rabbi David Wolpe

  David Wolpe — named the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek magazine and one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world by the Jerusalem Post — will speak in support of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona 2014 Community Campaign on Wednesday, Feb. 12. The… Read more »

Dallas teen’s Bar Mitzvah video sparks debate over culture of excess
August 19, 2013 / JTA Staff
Sam Horowitz dancing at his Bar Mitzvah party in Dallas, November 2012. (You Tube)

(JTA) — For some boys reaching the age of Bar Mitzvah, donning a prayer shawl and reading from the Torah is exciting enough. But Sam Horowitz knew he wanted more. The Dallas teen is the star of a Bar Mitzvah video that has gone viral in the past two… Read more »