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Seth Farber

Rabbanit Sarah Segal-Katz (center) one of the female Torah scholars who has petitioned the High Court of Justice to be allowed to take the rabbinical tests administered by the Chief Rabbinate. (Ayelet Landau/Gluya Magazine)
February 11, 2026, 10:29 pm
Following years of legal battles, Chief Rabbinate opens rabbinical tests to women
Petitioners who first asked the High Court of Justice to intervene in 2019 hail the move, but the Rabbinate also announces it will conduct a comprehensive reform of the system
By Rossella Tercatin
Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef (right) and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber (left), with Israel's President Isaac Herzog during their swearing-in ceremony at the President Residence in Jerusalem, on November 4, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
October 21, 2025, 5:51 pm
Chief Rabbinate says it’s willing to let women take some rabbinical tests
After High Court of Justice ruled it must open its exams to women, state rabbinical body asks court to hold another hearing and postpone implementation of its original ruling
By Rossella Tercatin
A group of female Torah scholars petitions the High Court of Justice to be allowed to take the rabbinical tests administered by the Chief Rabbinate in an image from 2019. (Courtesy, ITIM)
July 14, 2025, 11:32 pm
Chief Rabbinate must open rabbinical tests to women, High Court rules
The ruling does not imply that women are entitled to be ordained as rabbis, but it offers unprecedented recognition of their Torah scholarship
By Rossella Tercatin
Alina Plahti, who was killed at the Supernova music festival on October 7, 2023, was buried separately from other Jews at a cemetery in her home city of Beit She’an. (Courtesy)
July 10, 2025, 9:58 pm
Knesset rejects bill to let all terror victims be buried in Jewish cemeteries
Civil society groups say vote shows Israel has failed to learn lessons from October 7, when some victims who were not considered Jewish by law were buried in separate cemeteries
By Rossella Tercatin
The Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court seen on August 3, 2017. (Miriam Alster/ FLASH90/ File)
March 6, 2025, 12:53 pm
Half of Israelis in rabbinical courts say they were wronged – survey
According to a study by the ITIM nonprofit, one in five Israelis also report their connection to Judaism was negatively impacted by the experience
By Rossella Tercatin
Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli attends a plenum session on the so-called Rabbis Bill in the Knesset, January 15, 2025. (Goldberg/Flash90)
January 16, 2025, 5:22 pm
After yearlong strife, Knesset passes Shas’s controversial ‘Rabbis Law’
New law on funding salaries of religious officials ‘promotes the politicization of the rabbinate,’ warns Rabbi David Stav of the liberal Tzohar rabbinic group
By Sam Sokol
Illustrative: Anti-government protesters and police stand next to the Jerusalem Rabbinate and Religious Council, May 4, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
December 20, 2024, 1:58 pm
Critics charge new regulations will hand Shas control over municipal rabbinates
‘They will actually control all the local rabbinates, all the local rabbis in Israel,’ says Rabbi David Stav from the liberal Tzohar rabbinic group
By Sam Sokol
FILE — A woman arranging voting slips for the Chief Rabbinate election. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
September 9, 2024, 9:05 pm
Lawmakers vote to extend term of Chief Rabbinate Council until end of 2024
Critics dismiss law as attempt to allow conservative religious elements to gain greater control over composition of the Chief Rabbi Election Assembly and sideline women
By Sam Sokol
File - Oded Forer, chair of Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, attends a committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on January 19, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
January 23, 2024, 4:34 pm
Government failure to arrange circumcisions delays conversion to Judaism for 98 men
A soldier fighting in Gaza nearly spent NIS 7,000 of his own money to finalize the process, an activist representing him says
By Canaan Lidor
Justice Isaac Amit at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, January 4, 2024. (Flash90/Yonatan Sindel)
January 16, 2024, 12:52 pm
Rabbinate delays divorce of a woman it helped wed but now says may not be Jewish
High Court of Justice orders rabbinical judges to discontinue their inquiry and nullify the marriage, after delaying since 2021
By Canaan Lidor
Head of ITIM Rabbi Seth Farber. (Courtesy)
November 24, 2023, 9:20 am
What Matters Now to Rabbi Seth Farber: Hostages and mixed burials in Jewish law
Issues of religion and state can take on more urgency in times of war. The head of ITIM, an NGO aimed at helping Israelis navigate the country’s religious bureaucracy, explains
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
A mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath, in a Jerusalem neighborhood. (illustrative photo credit: Uri Lenz/Flash90)
August 31, 2023, 12:58 pm
Public mikvehs routinely violate women’s right to immerse alone, study finds
Analysis by ITIM group reveals that only 188 of 320 of ritual bathhouses in large cities say they comply with a 2016 ruling on the issue
By Canaan Lidor
Illustrative: An Israeli couple photographed for their wedding at a blossoming almond tree field in Latrun on February 25, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
February 16, 2023, 2:55 pm
As Jewish Israelis lose trust, fewer are marrying through the Rabbinate
The number of Jews registering weddings with the state body has decreased since 2011, even as the population has grown by more than 20%, religious advocacy group finds
By Judah Ari Gross
David Ben Moshe holds his newly received immigrant visa in the Population Authority on January 12, 2023. (Courtesy/David Ben Moshe)
January 12, 2023, 4:30 pm
After five years of waiting, American convert finally granted Israeli citizenship
David Ben Moshe, born David Bonett, first applied for citizenship in 2018 and spent years fighting against the unyielding world of Israeli bureaucracy
By Judah Ari Gross
Women study at the Ohr Torah Stone Susi Bradfield Women’s Institute of Halakhic Leadership in Jerusalem on November 22, 2022. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)
December 15, 2022, 7:01 am
In first, women take official Jewish law tests, but activists say it isn’t enough
For now, the state-issued exams represent a purely symbolic victory, granting female Torah scholars formal recognition with no practical significance
By Judah Ari Gross
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