Posts Tagged: Israel Chief Rabbinate
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate Promises More of the Same Flawed Policies After Election
While the world’s attention has been focused on the American election, there has been a far less publicized, but still significant, election in Israel for...
Israel Doubly Deserted on Yom Kippur During Holiday and COVID-19 Lockdown
In ordinary times, Yom Kippur brings much of Israel to a standstill, as businesses close and roads empty for the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. But the...
Israeli Jewish Divorces Up by 5 Percent in 2018, With an 86 Percent Increase in One City
JNS.org - According to statistics issued by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, the divorce rate among Israeli Jews rose by five percent in 2018, while soaring by...
Parashat Vayishlach: A Warning to Israel’s Chief Rabbinate
The Jews’ most formidable enemy in Biblical times was the nation of Amalek. This nation was, and symbolically still is, the personification of evil, brutality,...
A US Citizen Is Being Held Hostage by a Rabbinical Court in Israel
An elderly and sick US citizen has been held hostage for three years by a rabbinical court in Israel. He is being threatened with imprisonment...
Breaking the Ultra-Orthodox Control Over Israel
The Israeli Chief Rabbinate, backed by its ultra-Orthodox political factions, is negatively affecting the entire state of Israel. In previous generations, we were blessed with chief rabbis...
Embarrassed to Be Israeli or Jewish?
This week, I met someone who had just returned from a trip to the Greek islands. He told me that he kept meeting Israelis who confided that...
The Disgrace of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate
The Israeli Chief Rabbinate and some of our halachic authorities seem to have taken a path that results in causing people great pain and suffering, thereby...
Israel’s Battle for Peace Between Religion and State
JNS.org - The relationship between religion and state in Israel is stormy. Lately, it seems the ultra-Orthodox have launched a new offensive on several fronts. First, representatives...
Setting the Record Straight on Israel and Orthodox Judaism
JNS.org - The recent op-ed by Yair Sheleg, “Israel’s battle for peace between religion and state,” is troublesome in several ways. While he portrays himself as a dispassionate...
Separate But Equal? Egalitarian Prayer Space at Western Wall Is Still Religious Discrimination
A plan to create a special prayer space at the southern expanse of the Western Wall where the Conservative and Reform movements can hold gender-mixed services was...
Israeli’s Chief Rabbinate Wants to Become the Vatican
The tensions created by the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate within Israeli society have extended to the Diaspora and are now undermining relations with the Jewish state. Ironically,...
It’s Time to Disband Israel’s State-Sponsored Rabbinical Leadership
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief when I read that Separdi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef has extended the ban on television and computers by decreeing that...
Despite Their Merits, Israel’s New Conversion Courts Undermine Jewish Unity
A furor has erupted over the establishment of a new conversion court in Israel, which was opened with the blessing and cooperation of some of...
