ultra-Orthodox

A young Jewish boy eats at the Yad Ezra V'Shulamit center in Jerusalem, which serves hot lunch every day to more than 1,200 children under the poverty line. September 27, 2011. (Uri Lenz/Flash90)

September 14, 2023, 1:37 am

Court okays state food voucher program said to prioritize ultra-Orthodox

High Court clears Shas-led plan, lifting injunction it issued amid criticism scheme focuses on large, religious families at expense of Holocaust survivors, single parent families

By ToI Staff

Young students learn in a classroom at the opening of the new school year in a school for ultra-Orthodox Jewish boys in Beit Shemesh, on August 28, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

September 12, 2023, 8:03 pm

Knesset okays cutting ministries’ funds, moving NIS 480 million for Haredi education

Panel cuts NIS 730 million to finance various projects, but most transferred to ultra-Orthodox schools; Lapid decries move as abuse of weakest parts of society

By Carrie Keller-Lynn and Michael Horovitz

A view of apartment buildings in the Kiryat HaYovel neighborhood of Jerusalem, on February 19, 2017. (Yaakov Lederman/Flash90)

August 20, 2023, 6:41 pm

In blow to secular activists, court okays Haredi school in Jerusalem’s Kiryat HaYovel

Municipality scores major Supreme Court win against community activists in secular-majority neighborhood, will open Bais Yaakov school for girls ahead of upcoming school year

By ToI Staff

Illustrative: A close-up of a rat on a wall. (Sophie Gordon/Flash 90)

August 20, 2023, 5:00 pm

How a rat infestation in ultra-Orthodox Bnei Brak could reawaken its democracy

Upcoming local election could be a real race for the 1st time in years, as Shas candidate Uriel Buso takes on the United Torah Judaism machine and vows to mop up sanitation issues

By Tal Schneider

Illustrative: Secular Israelis board a gender-segregated bus where women sit in the back of the bus, and men in the front. The secular women sat among ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in the front, as part of a protest against the exclusion of women in the public sphere, January 1, 2012. (Miriam Alster / Flash90)

August 17, 2023, 3:31 am

Reporter’s United flight discrimination claim intensifies gender segregation debate

Journalist’s assertion she was asked to move seats so Haredi men wouldn’t have to sit next to her, and shouted at for refusing, comes as issues of gender equality return to fore

By Andrew Lapin

Neria Kraus, Channel 13 US correspondent. (YouTube screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

August 15, 2023, 10:47 pm

Reporter says United crew yelled at her for refusing Haredi request to move seats

Channel 13 US correspondent Neria Kraus describes ‘humiliating incident’ on board flight to Tel Aviv from New York, but man claims son asked to switch seats to be next to friend

By ToI Staff

Likud party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, right, shakes hands with United Torah Judaism party leader Yitzhak Goldknopf in the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem on November 21, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

August 13, 2023, 11:55 pm

Ultra-Orthodox parties said to refuse Netanyahu request to compromise on draft bill

Due to military pressure, PM reportedly trying to reach agreement for a less-drastic version of conscription law

By ToI Staff

View of the Stella Maris Monastery in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, August 1, 2023. (Shir Torem/Flash90)

August 9, 2023, 2:13 pm

Daily Briefing Aug 9: Why are ultra-Orthodox Jews suddenly praying at a Haifa church?

Political correspondent Tal Schneider on Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s strange UAE meeting, PM Netanyahu’s latest promise; religion reporter Canaan Lidor on far-left antisemitism

By ToI Staff

Ari Goldman speaks at Yeshiva Stories in New York City, July 11, 2023. (Phylisa Wisdom via JTA)

July 17, 2023, 2:55 am

At NYC event inspired by The Moth, yeshiva grads roast their religious upbringings

Speakers at Yeshiva Stories decry the lack of secular education in religious institutions and tell some harrowing and humorous tales of life in the ultra-Orthodox world

By Gabe Friedman

Yisrael Beytenu party chairman MK Avigdor Liberman attends a discussion and a vote in the assembly hall of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on May 15, 2023. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

May 31, 2023, 9:39 pm

Yisrael Beytenu: Shas MK racist for calling Liberman ‘ignoramus from Moldova’

Party leader Liberman clashes with ultra-Orthodox Yinon Azoulay over education standards; MK Forer asks Knesset Speaker to remove Azoulay from chair of House Ethics Committee

By ToI Staff

Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid speaks at the Herzliya Conference at Reichman University, May 23, 2023. (Gilad Kavalerchik)

May 23, 2023, 2:14 pm

Lapid accuses government of giving Haredim ‘our tax money to ensure they won’t work’

Opposition leader denounces Netanyahu-led coalition for failing to tackle cost of living, says budget tells ultra-Orthodox: ‘The suckers’ children will pay for your children’

By Jeremy Sharon

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, shakes hands with United Torah Judaism MKs Yisrael Eichler, center and Meir Porush in the Knesset, January 25, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90/File)

May 21, 2023, 10:50 pm

Haredi MK threatens elections if budget demands ignored, says PM ‘not a leader’

MK Yaakov Eichler says faction needs to ‘reevaluate’ its place in government; Otzma Yehudit MK vows her party won’t compromise on its demands for extra Negev and Galilee funding

By ToI Staff

Protesters march in Bnei Brak against the billions in funds provided to ultra-Orthodox parties in the state budget, on May 17, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

May 21, 2023, 6:28 pm

‘Backward country’: Economists warn government over Haredi budget allocations

In letter, former senior Bank of Israel and Treasury officials say the planned funding of food vouchers and unregulated schools poses an ‘existential threat to Israel’s future’

By Sharon Wrobel

Products at Be Pharmacy with purple stickers covering the faces of women on May 17, 2023. (Twitter account of Stav Ella used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

May 21, 2023, 5:05 pm

After backlash, Bnei Brak drugstore stops covering up images of women on products

Shufersal’s Be pharmacy says exclusion of women against its policies; changes made at branch following dialogue with protesters and local rabbi

By ToI Staff

Anti-overhaul protesters rally in Tel Aviv, May 20, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

May 20, 2023, 11:40 pm

Rallying for 20th week, overhaul opponents also decry looming budget as ‘a robbery’

Some 150,000 estimated at nationwide rallies; opposition head Lapid threatens to bolt compromise talks on judicial revamp; former budget chief: Government ‘destroying the economy’

By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff