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Chief Rabbinate of Israel
In question over who wrote the 'Prayer for peace in Israel,' Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi Herzog is discovered as the true author after decades-long dispute. (National Library of Israel)
April 18, 2018, 5:41 pm
Mystery of who wrote the ‘Prayer for the State of Israel’ is finally solved
New research deciphers historical whodunnit over who penned one of the country's most important founding texts in 1948
By Tracy Frydberg
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef attends the cornerstone laying ceremony for Nezer HaTalmud Yeshiva in Beitar Illit on September 19, 2016. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)
April 10, 2018, 3:43 pm
A deafening silence in the wake of hate speech
Where were was the outrage and demonstrations after the Chief Rabbi made his 'monkeys' comment?
By Harold Goldmeier
Artichokes being cooked (Pepperedjane/Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)
April 6, 2018, 7:41 pm
Rome’s Jews reject Israel artichoke dictat
The Chief Rabbinate has said local delicacy does not adhere to kosher standards, but Italians aren't having it
By AFP
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef (R) speaks during a ceremony before the Passover holiday, April 9, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 29, 2018, 2:31 pm
Israel mulls criminal action against top rabbi who called black people ‘monkeys’
Justice Ministry said considering various steps against Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, examining whether remark constitutes incitement to racism
By Michael Bachner
Illustrative: The building of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in Jerualem. (Flash90)
March 29, 2018, 2:20 pm
This Passover: Freedom to and freedom from
Israeli Jews are free to do many things, but they are bound by an overreaching government when it comes to religion
By Seth Farber
Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef speaking at the funeral of Rabbi Yehoshua Maman in Jerusalem, Jan. 14, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 28, 2018, 3:34 pm
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate should be abolished
A coercive state rabbinate is a severe threat to democracy, to non-Orthodox Judaism, and also to Modern Orthodoxy
By Uri Regev
An Israeli patient waits in the corridor of the Barzlai Medical Center in Ashkelon, southern Israel, February 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
March 27, 2018, 2:14 pm
Hospitals split over rabbis’ orders to confiscate food not kosher for Passover
5 medical centers announce they won't check visitors' bags for leavened food, 3 say they will, following petition to High Court by secular Israelis against the orders
By Sue Surkes
From the frontpiece of Shulhan Arukh, the Code of Jewish Law. (Wikipedia)
March 21, 2018, 1:55 pm
The Rabbinate won’t let me take its exams
By not letting us female students of Shabbat, kashrut, and more establish our expertise, the rabbis quash the Torah
By Chamutal Shoval
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef attends the cornerstone laying ceremony for Nezer HaTalmud Yeshiva in Beitar Illit on September 19, 2016. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)
March 21, 2018, 1:06 am
ADL slams chief rabbi for likening black people to monkeys
Watchdog group says Yitzhak Yosef's 'racially charged comment' in weekly sermon is 'utterly unacceptable'
By TOI staff
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef attends a ceremony in Jerusalem, October 22, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 20, 2018, 1:45 pm
Chief rabbi calls black people ‘monkeys’
Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef uses pejorative term 'kushi' for African Americans in weekly sermon
By Sue Surkes
Noam Oren (L) and his wife on their wedding day on August 16, 2016. (Yarin Taranos/courtesy)
March 16, 2018, 7:53 am
Orthodox couple appeals to High Court after Rabbinate puts them in marital limbo
Noam Oren and his wife married in a religious ceremony, but authorities refuse to recognize it due to their insistence on protecting each other from potential divorce refusal
By Michael Bachner
The building of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in Jerusalem. (Flash90)
March 16, 2018, 5:21 am
Outcry after Chief Rabbinate bars women from exam on Jewish laws
Orthodox women threaten lawsuit after request to take test on family purity rejected for no apparent reason; activist calls move 'illegal'
By JTA
Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz (right), presents an alternative kashrut certificate to the Whiskey Bar Museum in Tel Aviv's Sarona Market (Courtesy Hashgacha Pratit)
February 27, 2018, 5:54 pm
Private kashrut supervision closes in favor of new authority
Hashgacha Pratit announces it worked with religious-Zionist Tzohar group to create alternative to state rabbinate
By TOI staff
Customers sit at the Carousela restaurant, which was supervised by Hashgaha Pratit - Hebrew for private supervision - to check it abides by kosher practices, on June 8, 2016, in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood.(AFP PHOTO / MENAHEM KAHANA)
February 26, 2018, 3:00 pm
In ‘challenge’ to rabbinate, Orthodox group launches own kosher supervision
Announcing initiative, religious-Zionist Tzohar group says it doesn't seek to replace state-run system but merely open Israeli market to competition
By Marissa Newman
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a Likud faction meeting at the Knesset on February 26, 2018 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
February 26, 2018, 1:53 pm
Netanyahu sources reject ‘baseless’ claims in Bezeq case
Message decries 'mudslinging campaign,' ridicules notion there was an arrangement worth NIS 1 billion: 'tomorrow it'll be a trillion'
By TOI staff
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