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State Rabbinate

At Amit Amital School in Netanya, Isabella Vinci taught English as part of a Masa program, November 2022. (Courtesy via JTA)
October 25, 2025, 6:48 am
Highlighting Diaspora rift, Israel rejects US immigration applicant over Zoom-era conversion
Critics say the rebuffing of Isabella Vinci, who spent Shabbats with an Orthodox host family and taught English in an Israeli public school, defies a 2005 High Court ruling
By Asaf Elia-Shalev
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
Gold medallist Israel's Artem Dolgopyat celebrates on the podium of the floor event of the artistic gymnastics men's floor exercise final during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo on August 1, 2021. (Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP)
August 1, 2021, 11:46 pm
Israel’s Olympic gold medalist can’t marry in the country, his mother laments
Artem Dolgopyat is not considered Jewish according to Orthodox practice, as only his father is Jewish; with no civil marriage option, his only outlet is marriage abroad
By ToI Staff
Illustrative: People attend a ceremony that commemorates the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest Jewish ghetto in Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest, Hungary on January 19, 2020. (Tibor Illyes/MTI via AP)
April 23, 2021, 2:38 pm
Israeli rabbis order Hungary government to freeze payouts to sparring local Jews
But Hungary says it won’t get involved in spat over allocation of payments for confiscated properties, as Orthodox groups sue Conservative Mazsihisz in Jerusalem rabbinical court
By Yaakov Schwartz
Illustrative photo of a representative of Israel's Chief Rabbinate inspecting a kosher certificate at a food stand in Jerusalem. (Rubin Salvadori/Flash90/File)
February 20, 2020, 2:45 pm
Rabbinate gains power to indict businesses with private kashrut certification
For first time, attorney general permits state rabbinate officials to launch criminal proceedings against restaurants and caterers caught violating rabbinate’s kashrut monopoly
By ToI Staff
Israeli soldiers guard at a bus stop in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem on October 19, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
August 13, 2019, 7:53 pm
Most Israeli Jews back public buses on Shabbat and egalitarian prayer at Kotel
Israel Democracy Institute survey finds broad support for liberal policies, but also shows liberal Israelis don’t prioritize religion-and-state issues at the ballot box
By ToI Staff
Illustrative photo of a kashrut supervisor in a warehouse. March 20, 2016. (Yaakov Naumi/FLASH90)
August 13, 2018, 2:33 pm
Senior rabbinate official arrested on kashrut bribery suspicions
Suspect allegedly expedited approval for importers who offered kickbacks; 4 others arrested, 8 more questioned
By ToI Staff
Convert 'Katya' and her daughter sit before the independent Giyur K'halacha conversion court, led by Rabbi Nahum Rabinovitch (center) on August 10, 2015. (courtesy)
April 22, 2018, 7:33 pm
Draft bill said to give Orthodox sole control over Jewish conversion in Israel
Proposed legislation comes amid tensions between Israel and Diaspora communities, and a coalition crisis with ultra-Orthodox parties
By ToI Staff
Michal Berman
November 14, 2017, 2:39 pm
Michal Berman
How to keep Israelis away from Judaism
As long as the ultra-Orthodox have outsized political power, most citizens will remain indifferent
Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll
February 20, 2017, 2:44 pm
Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll
The Rabbinate’s alternative facts
Claims that women outnumber men in refusing to grant divorce distort truth and amplify women’s suffering
Illustrative photo of a couple having a wedding picture taken at the Western Wall, in the Old City of Jerusalem, April 2011. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
April 20, 2016, 8:03 pm
Police: Haifa Rabbinate regularly blocks weddings linked to rivals
Probe into officials from Religious Services Ministry follows TV report on discrimination against couples registered with Tzohar
By Tamar Pileggi
Illustrative photo of a bride and groom prior to their wedding, November 4, 2015. (Flash90)
March 6, 2016, 11:23 pm
Police probing how Haifa Rabbinate obtained data on marrying couples
Investigation into Religious Services Ministry officials comes after TV claims licences were denied to those asking Tzohar rabbis to marry them
By ToI Staff
Illustrative photo of a couple posing before their wedding, March 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
February 28, 2016, 9:42 pm
Report: Haifa Rabbinate denies marriage licenses to couples linked to rival body
Tzohar urges police probe into rabbinical authorities after second set of discrimination complaints lodged against the organization
By JTA and Tamar Pileggi
The building of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in Jerusalem (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
January 6, 2016, 3:47 am
State kosher certification costs Israeli economy $770M a year
Treasury report finds rabbinate’s practices ‘raise the cost of living, as any exclusive provider in the production process would’
By JTA
File: Lawyers Rabbi Uri Regev (far right) and Edna Meyrav with their client from Elad at a Supreme Court hearing in 2014. (Courtesy: Hiddush)
July 27, 2015, 3:20 pm
Who writes the law for the Land of Israel? Supreme Court case asks
An Orthodox family excommunicated by a religious court fights back with help from a Reform rabbi, in a battle over freedom of — or from — religion
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
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