Israeli rabbinate

Chief Rabbinate Council disputes Tzohar kashrut approval hours after authorization

“The approval was granted unlawfully and did not go through the Chief Rabbinate Council as required,” Director General of the Ministry of Religious Services Yehuda Avidan said.

A Tzohar kashrut sticker in a window
Three women who arrived in the morning to sit the Rabbinate exams finally do so at a four-hour delay, April 27, 2026

Rabbinate accused of defying court as Israeli women left waiting for exams

SUPREME COURT Justice Noam Sohlberg attends a ceremony for fallen Israeli soldiers whose burial place is unknown at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on March 6.

Rabbinate seeks retrial on ruling allowing women to take exams, blames 'halachic noncompliance'

 Ten Israeli couples with a member serving in the IDF taking part in a mass wedding ceremony part of Chabad of Savyon’s “Marrying the Warriors”, in Tel Aviv Port, March 5, 2024.

Israelis want civil marriage, to break rabbinic monopoly in new Tu B'Av poll


‘Imprisoned in marriage against her will’

The first is the “aguna from Safed,” a case which is unquestionably an anomaly in that a get (a Jewish writ of divorce) was awarded to a woman whose husband was incapacitated by a car accident.

MARRIAGE SHOULD not be a prison

Mevaseret Zion seeks to prevent election of chief municipal rabbi

City can’t afford NIS 400,000 salary, mayor tells religious services minister.

Mevaseret Zion

MKs slam ministry, Chief Rabbinate over circumcision scandal

Mohel accused of sending trainees to practice on Ethiopian, Sudanese babies.

Circumcision

Analysis: Rabbis will continue to upset the public

Just this month, Shas chairman and Interior Minister Arye Deri strengthened the religious establishment’s hold over rabbinical appointments in 32 regional authorities.

Mayor Nir Barkat shares a toast with chief rabbis Arye Stern and Shlomo Amar.

Israeli divorce refusal to be criminalized in certain circumstances

Divorce refusal by women is not uncommon although occurs to a lesser extent than divorce refusal by men, according to activist groups.

Divorce

Keeping kosher: It may be bad for your economic health

Israel's "religious dietary rules" were recently singled out as helping to "hamper the functioning and efficiency of the food and retail sectors."

Kosher certificates

This Normal Life: Lowest common denominator

"Our children can’t (or won’t) marry each other, we don’t eat in each other’s homes and we fight repeatedly to preserve a long irrelevant status quo."

Jerusalem street

Jews by choice must be made to feel welcome in their homeland

Right now the rabbinate is widening the gulf between Israel and the Jewish people.

LET THEM feel welcome. The author argues that the Israel rabbinate’s behavior is unhalachic and Jews are suffering as a result.

US Orthodox rabbinical association: Chief Rabbinate behavior ‘a disgrace’

Normative Jewish law states that if after converting a convert subsequently fails to fulfill all the religious commandments he nevertheless remains Jewish.

A man wears a kippa embroidered with US and Israeli flags

Haredim take control of rabbinical judges appointments committee

Liberal activist groups expressed their concern about the change in the balance of power on the committee.

The dayanim of the new Supreme Rabbinical Court met with the chief of the court Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef