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This week, Jewish philanthropist Charles Bronfman gave a commencement address at the Hebrew Union College. The schism between North American Jews and Israel is clearly a grave concern of the man who co-founded Birthright. Some two-thirds his speech went entirely to the widening rupture.
This week we started action on behalf of a former Haredi man who is serving in the IDF and faces discrimination, as well as on behalf of a school and a PTA who have confronted a zealous religious fundamentalist who is trying to tempt their students to "experience Judaism" his way.
Minister of Culture Miri Regev (no relation), who is responsible for the official celebrations, invited the public to sign on to the country’s Declaration of Independence. Are she and her colleagues in the Knesset truly committed to its principles, particularly to the commitment to inclusion and diversity…or is this just another PR stunt?
Last week, Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, explained a point of ritual by likening a black child born to white parents to a “monkey.” Immediately following the publication of his racist remarks, a storm erupted. It was widely broadcast, including by JTA, Newsweek and the Palestinian media.
A new survey reveals how strongly the Israeli public is opposed to the demand of the ultra-Orthodox parties to pass a new 'Basic Law: Torah study', as well as an amendment to the Defense Service Law to legalize the continued draft dodging of most yeshiva students.
The Zionist Orthodox Tzohar rabbinic organization announced that it is launching a kosher supervising entity that will compete with the Chief Rabbinate.
The Just this week, on Tuesday, following Hiddush's petition, the Knesset approved regulations that would, for the first time, put a halt to the mass phenomenon of false claims of religiosity aimed at receiving exemptions from military service.
Defense Minister Liberman reacted to recent public pronouncements of leading Israeli rabbis from the "Zionist ultra-Orthodox" camp that were aimed against women's military service.
At this time, we want to share with you an important exposition of the debate over the place of the Kotel controversy in the American Jewish public discourse and American Jewry's efforts at influencing Israeli policies.
The approaching vote over the “Market’s Bill”, labeled by the public as a “Shabbat Bill” is representative of the mounting public and political debate over the clash of religion and state.
Six years after the enactment of an amendment to the Security Service Law to establish a process for revoking thousands of women's exemptions for falsely claiming to having religious lifestyles that conflict with IDF service, the law has remained a dead letter. The prerequisite regulations have not been enacted, and the amendment could not be implemented.
This week, the annual Israel Democracy Index was published by the Israel Democracy Institute, underlining that Israelis harbor deep distrust for their politicians, the media, and the Chief Rabbinate but are generally favorably inclined toward the courts and presidency.
A recent report by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel sheds light on another important dimension of the official statistics on Haredim in Higher Education that are so frequently cited by government officials.
In the last couple days, a new chapter was added to the never ending saga of Israeli religious leaders who view the law as merely a suggestion. Whether for personal benefit or political opportunism, they do not hesitate to deviate from law and common norms.
Many are following the twists and turns of the Kotel controversy with great interest and often anxiety. While grateful to the Jewish Week for featuring my take on the current state of the controversy, Uri feel that further contextualization is needed.