(JTA) — Israel’s official Jewish religious authority has published a list of rabbis it trusts to perform Jewish conversions. They are all Orthodox. Advocates for religious reform in Israel said the publication of the list of 69 rabbinical courts was a mixed bag: While they are happy to see… Read more »
Tagged Israeli Chief Rabbinate
Proposal to overhaul conversion in Israel would remove control from Chief Rabbinate
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A proposal to overhaul the conversion system in Israel would remove its control from the haredi Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate. The chief rabbis of Israel and dozens of haredi and religious Zionist rabbis are objecting to the plan, which recommends the establishment of a new state-run Orthodox… Read more »
Israel’s conversion laws are about to get stricter
The headquarters of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel is located in Jerusalem. (Flash90)
(JTA) — Jewish converts in America may have a much harder time being accepted in Israel because of a new set of regulations proposed by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. If adopted, some activists in Israel say, the new guidelines for religious courts could drive a deeper wedge between Israel and… Read more »
Chief Rabbinate says list of rabbis is not a blacklist
David Lau, Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, speaking to children about the Kristallnacht pogroms at the Or Avner Jewish school in Berlin, Nov. 8, 2013. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
(JTA) — The Israeli Chief Rabbinate says that its list of foreign rabbis has been misconstrued, and that the list does not imply that those rabbis cannot be trusted to vouch for the Jewish identities of their followers. On Saturday, JTA reported on a list of some 160 rabbis… Read more »
Israel’s controversial conversion bill, explained
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, center, in brown cap, and Knesset member Dov Lipman, directly to his right, at a protest held by American and Israeli Orthodox and Conservative Jews outside the Chief Rabbinate offices in Jerusalem, July 6, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
(JTA) — Israeli politicians and Jewish leaders are fighting again over an age-old question: Who counts as a Jew? And who gets to decide? Last week, Israel’s government inflamed simmering tensions over Jewish conversion when a Cabinet committee advanced a bill that would further empower the country’s haredi Orthodox… Read more »
Israel’s chief rabbis embrace friendlier approach to marriage, but is it enough?
Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau, right, meets with B'Noam director Rabbi Yisroel Meir Riani in Modiin, Israel, October 2016.
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Many Israelis feel alienated by the marriage process in their country, fed up with the bureaucracy and strict religious requirements. Some seek to reform the haredi Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate while creating alternatives to its monopoly on marriage and other personal status issues in Israel. But haredi Rabbi Yisroel Meir… Read more »
Most Israelis favor greater religion-state separation, new study shows
Secular Israelis outside the Cinema City theater in Jerusalem demonstrating in favor of allowing movie theaters to open on Shabbat, Feb. 25, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) TEL AVIV (JTA) – During the past 18 months, the governing coalition in Israel has passed legislation to extend the nation’s mandatory conscription to the haredi Orthodox — a group currently exempted from military service — and Knesset leaders have advanced bills that would allow for civil unions and… Read more »
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