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religious coercion

US students work under Ten Commandments and Bill of Rights posters on display in a classroom at Lehman High School in Kyle, Texas on October 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
April 22, 2026, 9:18 am
Texas can require Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms, US court rules
American conservatives laud victory for ‘moral values’ as ruling signals boost to similar legislation in other red states; law’s challengers plan to take case to Supreme Court
By Agencies
Female soldiers cut their military ID cards at an IDF base on the day of their discharge, when three of them were court-martialed and fined for wearing revealing clothing. (Screen capture: X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
April 18, 2026, 11:39 am
IDF court-martials female troops who showed up for discharge in tank tops, short skirt
Military docks pay of 3 women; mother calls incident ‘repulsive and humiliating’; punishment of troops comes amid uproar after medics were jailed for barbecuing on base on Shabbat
By ToI Staff
Secular and Orthodox activists clash after the religious Rosh Yehudi group sets up a gender divider made of Israeli flags in defiance of a municipality decision at a public prayer service in Dizengoff Square, Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur, September 24, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90)
December 18, 2025, 2:36 am
Knesset advances bill criminalizing interference with Orthodox religious practices in public
Coalition bill also requires civil court judges to pass test on Jewish law, though that clause expected to be nixed; MKs also vote for legislation stripping chief justice of authority to staff judicial panels
By Sam Sokol
In 'The Great Christmas Boycott of 1906,' Scott D. Seligman reconstructs how a seemingly local dispute in one Brooklyn school exploded into a test case for religious freedom and civic belonging. (Nebraska University Press via JTA)
November 19, 2025, 4:34 am
How at the turn of the century, American Jews really did wage a ‘war on Christmas’
A new book by historian Scott D. Seligman recalls the ‘The Great Christmas Boycott of 1906,’ when immigrants fought for the separation of church and state in public schools
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
A woman argues with Rosh Yehudi activists at a mass street prayer for Yom Kippur on Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on September 24, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90)
October 9, 2024, 5:00 am
High Court to rule on public Tel Aviv Yom Kippur prayer amid fears of repeat clashes
On Wednesday morning, judges are set to weigh in on a controversial service that underscores deep rifts in Israeli society and saw violent confrontations when it was held last year
By Mati Wagner
Muslims attend Friday prayers during the Muslims holy fasting month of Ramadan, at Amr ibn al-Aas Mosque, in Cairo, Egypt, April 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
October 17, 2023, 1:59 am
Fearing ostracism or worse, many Muslim nonbelievers hide their views in Middle East
Atheists, agnostics and religiously unaffiliated people in Arab world tell about the various ways they get around while avoiding persecution
By MARIAM FAM
A protester tackling Rabbi Leo Dee as he prays at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 5, 2023. (Video screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
October 5, 2023, 1:34 pm
Tel Aviv officials, activists disrupt protest prayer led by terror-bereaved rabbi
Municipal workers dismantle sex-segregation barrier placed in Dizengoff Square by Rabbi Leo Dee and other worshipers in response to confrontations over the divider on Yom Kippur
By Canaan Lidor
Protesters shout at Israel Zeira (right), founder of the Orthodox Jewish group Rosh Yehudi, which set up a gender divider for a public prayer event on Yom Kippur in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on September 24, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90)
September 29, 2023, 11:11 am
Fearing religious takeover, activists see ‘secular awakening’ in Yom Kippur fray
The breaking up of a prayer event over gender segregation has galvanized liberals worried about a slide into coercion, with battle lines mirroring divisions found in overhaul fight
By Canaan Lidor
Hila Galili demonstrates at a prayer rally against the government on September 29, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
September 29, 2023, 7:28 am
At a Tel Aviv prayer rally, anti-government protesters channel ‘a different Judaism’
Event born out of secular-religious clashes and a demonstration against far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir marks an unusual mix of faith and politics
By Canaan Lidor
Activists protest against gender segregation in the public space during a public prayer event in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on Yom Kippur, September 25, 2023. (Itai Ron/ Flash90)
September 25, 2023, 10:27 pm
Segregated Yom Kippur prayers spark slurs and bitterness, not atonement, in Tel Aviv
Angry tussles mar Judaism’s holiest day, as Orthodox and secular tensions hit a boiling point at court-barred, public gender-divided prayer event in the liberal heart of Israel
By Carrie Keller-Lynn
A bird's-eye view of about 2,000 worshipers as they attend the Yom Kippur Ne'ilah prayer in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on October 5, 2022. (Courtesy of Rosh Yehudi)
September 21, 2023, 3:17 pm
Annual Yom Kippur mass prayer tests the limits of Tel Aviv’s vaunted liberalism
City has prohibited the placing of a divider between men and women at popular street event that draws 2,000 Orthodox and secular participants; as things stand, it won’t go ahead
By Canaan Lidor
Ron Cobi, a former mayor of Tiberias and a candidate for the job, stands atop a hill overlooking his city in Israel on August 22, 2023. (Canaan Lidor/Times of Israel)
September 20, 2023, 10:42 am
Local elections turn placid Tiberias into unlikely front in Israel’s societal clash
Haredi and secularist extremism, as well as the alleged involvement of a former politician with a criminal record, are muddying the lakeside city’s political waters
By Canaan Lidor
Israelis swim at Gan HaShlosha National Park (also known as Sachne) in northern Israel, September 9, 2017. (Gili Yaari/Flash90)
August 10, 2023, 11:30 am
Fear and frustration run deep around sex-segregated swimming plan at natural springs
An attempt to accommodate summertime Haredi visits to nature reserves is adding heat to the raging fight over Israel’s character
By Canaan Lidor
Staff prepare food at the Shila restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2019. (Courtesy of Shila)
July 26, 2023, 2:08 pm
Dozens of restaurants to stay open illegally on Tisha B’Av, some to protest overhaul
Many cite a desire to fight what they see as increasing religious coercion, whereas others are flouting the law to mitigate decreasing profit margins amid inflation
By Canaan Lidor
The four sons as depicted in a Haggadah distributed by the IDF to its officers, April, 2023 (via Or Heller, Twitter)
April 5, 2023, 6:01 pm
IDF Passover Haggadah depicts ‘evil son’ as secular, other three boys as religious
Commentary in religious book distributed to officers for holiday says God sometimes ‘allows our enemies to attack us so that we’re inspired to repent’
By ToI Staff
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