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    Rabbi Jules Harlow, 92, Dies; Helped Redefine Conservative Jewish Prayer

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    Rabbi Harlow’s prayer books, including “Siddur Sim Shalom,” became the standards of worship in Conservative synagogues across North America.Rabbi Jules Harlow, a liturgist who brought a poet’s sensibility and a musician’s cadence to the style of prayer in Conservative Judaism for much of the second half of the 20th century, died on Feb. 12. He was 92.His wife, Navah Harlow, said the cause was aspiration pneumonia. She did not say where he died.For a time, Rabbi Harlow’s major works — prayer books for daily, Sabbath, festival and High Holy Days use — became the standards for worship in Conservative synagogues in North America. Several of his books sold well over 100,000 copies each, according to the Rabbinical Assembly, which published them.Conservative Judaism, which occupies a middle ground between the more liberal Reform and the more traditional Orthodox, was the largest movement in American Judaism until Reform surpassed it in the 1990s.Though Hebrew is the language of Jewish prayer, Rabbi Harlow aspired to make the prayer book accessible to those who did not speak the language. He did this through elegant, if not always literal, translations into English that often captured the rhyme and meter of the original texts.At a funeral service for Rabbi Harlow in Manhattan on Feb. 14, Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, the chancellor emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary, called him “the resident poet of the Conservative movement.”Jewish liturgy, Rabbi Schorsch noted, is often “burdened with an excess of words.” Rabbi Harlow wrote and translated prayers and excised more than a few.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Matisyahu Salomon, Rabbi Who Warned of the Internet’s Dangers, Dies at 86

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      As a supervisor at America’s largest yeshiva, he wielded influence across the world of ultra-Orthodox Jews. He feared the internet jeopardized the observance of Jewish customs.Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon, a longtime spiritual counselor at America’s largest yeshiva who spearheaded a crusade to warn observant Jews of the risks posed by the internet, died on Jan. 2 in Lakewood, N.J. He was 86.The death was confirmed by Rabbi Avi Shafran, public affairs director of Agudath Israel of America, the umbrella organization for numerous Hasidic and other ultra-Orthodox groups. He said Rabbi Salomon had been ill for many years.Rabbi Salomon’s title during his three decades at Beth Medrash Govoha, a religious school in Lakewood whose enrollment of almost 9,000 students is exceeded only by the Mir Yeshiva in Israel, was dean of students. But he achieved far more influence than the title might suggest, through weekly lectures and personal encounters that guided thousands of young men on ethical and pious conduct.Many of his acolytes became leaders of the teeming haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, communities in Brooklyn, England and Israel, as well as in smaller enclaves around the world.He capitalized on that influence in a campaign he led a decade ago to warn observant Jews that new technologies were threatening observance of the laws, traditions and principles that are the backbone of their faith.Ultra-Orthodox Jews had been as enthusiastic about the benefits of computers, the internet and smartphones as their non-Jewish and more secular neighbors. But it became apparent to Rabbi Salomon and other community leaders that these new technologies could also be dangerous, beguiling pious Jews with videos. images and temporal content that would distract them from their family life, daily religious obligations and pursuits like Torah study.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More