Rabbinical Council of America

While encouraging advanced learning of halacha for Orthodox women, the Rabbinial Council of America says the upcoming ordination of three women at Yeshiva Maharat in Riverdale is a “violation of our mesorah (tradition).”

 A new report claims that professor and rabbi Michael Broyde may have created a second fake persona to engage in online discourse. 

Broyde, who admitted earlier this month to publishing letters in journals and gaining access to a rabbinic association under a fake name, may also have used a second fake persona, according to a report by The Jewish Channel.

Rabbi Michael Broyde, a prominent Orthodox rabbi who admitted to creating a fake alternate identity, is no longer a member of the Beth Din of America.

The haredi umbrella organization Agudath Israel is planning to sue the City of New York should the Board of Health pass a law this week requiring that mohels obtain informed consent from parents whose infant sons will undergo metztizah b’peh, The Jewish Week has learned.

The informed consent document would provide information about the oral suction procedure’s risks, which include infection with the herpes virus that could lead to brain damage or death.

Rabbi Basil Herring, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America since 2003, will leave that position to assume another, undefined position in the organization, the RCA announced this week. The RCA is the major rabbinical organization of Modern Orthodox Jewry in this country.

Seven and a half years after being forced to step down as the top executive of the Hebrew Academy for Special Needs (HASC) amid allegations of serious financial improprieties on his part, Bernard Moshe Kahn of Brooklyn is back — but not without a fight from some of the organization’s most dedicated staff and supporters.

A panel of Conservative rabbis, faced with two well-founded conflicting positions of Jewish law regarding same-sex commitment ceremonies, ruled in 2006 that both were valid opinions.

Faced with two well-founded positions of Jewish law on when death occurs for the purpose of organ donations, the country’s major Modern Orthodox rabbinic group has similarly ruled that both brain-stem death and the cessation of heartbeat are valid opinions.

In both cases, the two movements left it to their fellow clergy members to determine for themselves which opinion to follow.

In a move termed by one leading critic “an act of anti-Semitism” that may cause the medical community to deny organ transplants to Orthodox Jews, the central body of Modern Orthodox rabbis in the U.S. is backing away from using brain death as the indicator of death.

The move is significant because vital organs can be transplanted from people declared brain dead, but they are not viable if doctors have to wait for the heart and breathing to stop.

(JTA) -- The Orthodox Union issued a statement saying women may not lead Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat services if men are present.

Last week’s decision by the group's board of directors is the latest setback for Orthodox Jews seeking greater roles for women in worship ritual.

“With regard to the matter of a woman leading Kabbalat Shabbat services before an audience of men and women, the position of the Orthodox Union is that such practice is improper and constitutes an unacceptable breach of Jewish tradition," the board said.