Jewish News

Rabbi Who Once Served NYC Prisoners to Spend 45 Days As One

A rabbi who once served as a New York City prison chaplain has been sentenced to 45 days in prison in connection with a tenant-fraud scheme.Rabbi Leib Glanz pleaded guilty in September to lying to the government in order to defraud it of more than $36,000 in federal housing grants.Glanz had run the Satmar Hasidic community’s school system and served ...

Rabbi Threatens To Sue Jewish Daily Forward Newspaper

Republican congressional candidate Shmuley Boteach is threatening to sue a major Jewish newspaper for running a “libelous” and “utterly untrue” article that accused him of improperly using his internationally celebrated charity as a personal ATM.Boteach, a well-known author and Orthodox spiritual leader, told the Free Beacon that a recent article in the Forward newspaper, which raised questions about disbursements made ...

Rabbi Stav Announces Candidacy for Chief Rabbinate

Rabbi David Stav, chairman of the national-religious rabbinical association Tzohar, announced Wednesday night, via a YouTube video, that he would be standing as a candidate for the position of chief rabbi of Israel.Stav’s long-awaited announcement has been expected since last August, when Tzohar began a campaign to prompt the chief rabbinate to adopt a more modern approach to the Jewish ...

Rabbi: Seculars ignited Shabbat protests

Shabbat protests have returned to Jerusalem, but it seems that even the members of the Eda Haredit faction, which organizes them, are at odds over their necessity.Shmuel Chaim Pappenheim, considered one of the faction’s unofficial spokesmen, has slammed the decision to resume the protests against the operation of the Karta parking lot on weekends, claiming that most of the community ...

Rabbi Scheinberg, Torah Giant: From the US to Israel

Tens of thousands attended on Wednesday the funeral of Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, the “Elder of the Torah Sages” as he was reverently called, who passed away in Jerusalem at the age of 101.Rabbi Scheinberg, founder and head of Torah Ohr Yeshiva in Kiryat Mattersdorf and New York, and member of the Chief Council of Torah Sages of Degel Hatorah ...

Rabbi promotes ‘modesty wounds’

What should a girl do if she wishes to dress modestly but her parents won’t let her? According to Rabbi Yitzchok Zilberstein she can injure herself in order to use it as an excuse for dressing modestly.Three weeks ago, Rabbi Zilberstein, the the son-in-law of prominent Rabbi Yosef Elyashiv, received an inquiry from a women’s religious seminary (Midrasha) about a student ...

Rabbi pleads guilty in connection with Brooklyn money-laundering, corruption scheme

A frail and elderly rabbi who leads the nation’s Syrian Jewish community from a synagogue on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty today to using a religious charity to launder illegal cash.Saul Kassin, 79, was among 43 rabbis and politicians apprehended during a shocking morning of arrests in July 2009 — a spectacle that was the culmination of the biggest ...

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Returns Home After Stroke

Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was released from hospital Sunday morning after suffering a mild stroke on Saturday and has been instructed to rest for a number of days.Yosef, 92, was having trouble operating his left hand while praying in the synagogue at his home in Jerusalem during the Shabbat morning service, and he was taken to Hadassah Ein ...

Rabbi Ovadia: Selling homes to non-Jews prohibited

Selling a house or land in Israel to anyone who is not Jewish is forbidden, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said during a Thursday morning halacha lesson.The rabbi cited the halacha as saying that the property should be sold to a Jewish buyer, even if he offers a lesser amount for it.Dozens of students, Shas leaders among them, attended ...

Rabbi Ovadia Cursed Abbas Over Freeze

Former Israeli minister Aryeh Deri, formerly of the Shas party, explained on Sunday why Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, the Shas party’s spiritual leader, had wished for the demise of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas several weeks ago.Speaking to radio station Radio Kol Chai, Deri said that Rabbi Yosef’s remarks came as a result of his deep sorrow over the construction freeze ...

Rabbi of Yemen Calls for Jews to be Represented in Parliament

The Chief Rabbi of Yemen, Yahia Youssef Moussa, has called on the country’s president to allow the Jewish community and other minority groups to be represented in the country’s parliament.“I demand the government’s new attention to this, to work to allocate seats for members of the community in the Consultative Council and Parliament, in order to feel real citizenship, non-discrimination, ...

Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, Head of Vizhnitz Hasidic Dynasty, Dies at 95

One of the Haredi community’s most veteran leaders passed away overnight Tuesday in Bnei Brak. Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, the head of the Vizhnitz Hasidic dynasty and president of Agudath Israel’s Council of Torah Sages, died aged 95. His funeral will be held on Wednesday afternoon, and is expected to draw mass crowds.With the rabbi’s passing, a day of mourning ...