https://hiddush.org/subchannel-68-0-Religious_Courts.aspx This is an RSS update from channel Religious Courts on Hiddush website Sat, 09 May 2026 17:34:40 GMT He-il https://hiddush.org/article-23548-0-Agunot_–_A_Sharp_Indictment_of_Israel’s_Rabbinic_Courts.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23548-0-Agunot_–_A_Sharp_Indictment_of_Israel’s_Rabbinic_Courts.aspx Thu, 31 Mar 2022 18:46:00 GMT “This should have been the mission of the halakhic decisors: to make sure no woman finds herself for even one day or one night without a divorce!” https://hiddush.org/article-23289-0-Shaked_won_The_Jewish_has_beaten_the_democratic.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23289-0-Shaked_won_The_Jewish_has_beaten_the_democratic.aspx Thu, 22 Nov 2018 19:24:00 GMT It happened just this week. With little ado, the Supreme Court overturned a 25-year ruling and told the Rabbinical Courts that they could do whatever they please because the laws of the state no longer really apply to them. https://hiddush.org/article-23290-0-Hiddush_in_the_service_of_world_Jewry.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23290-0-Hiddush_in_the_service_of_world_Jewry.aspx Fri, 16 Nov 2018 20:48:00 GMT Every so often, Hiddush receives requests for assistance from outside of Israel. One recent appeal is particularly interesting and important, and we will continue to report on it again as it develops. https://hiddush.org/article-23265-0-First_woman_ever_appointed_as_legal_advisor_to_rabbinical_courts.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23265-0-First_woman_ever_appointed_as_legal_advisor_to_rabbinical_courts.aspx Tue, 07 Aug 2018 09:58:00 GMT We at Hiddush are delighted by the appointment of Attorney Shira Ben-Eli as legal advisor to Israel's rabbinical courts. https://hiddush.org/article-23212-0-Most_Israelis_favor_revoking_the_rabbinical_courts_monopoly.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23212-0-Most_Israelis_favor_revoking_the_rabbinical_courts_monopoly.aspx Tue, 27 Feb 2018 12:14:00 GMT 69% of the Israeli public supports revoking the monopoly of the rabbinical courts on Jewish personal status matters, supports the establishment of a parallel civil system, and supports alternative, lenient rabbinic courts as a solution to alleviate the phenomenon of agunot https://hiddush.org/article-19131-0-High_Court_Women_may_manage_rabbinical_courts.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-19131-0-High_Court_Women_may_manage_rabbinical_courts.aspx Wed, 16 Aug 2017 11:41:00 GMT The High Court justices ruled that a woman could be appointed head of the Rabbinical Courts. https://hiddush.org/article-17068-0-Growing_frictions_between_religion_and_state_in_Israel.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-17068-0-Growing_frictions_between_religion_and_state_in_Israel.aspx Wed, 05 Apr 2017 22:09:00 GMT Israel's Supreme Court has handed down two decisions that demonstrate the critical importance of an independent civil judiciary, but the Government Coalition continues to capitulate to the ultra-Orthodox political parties. https://hiddush.org/article-17065-0-Theocratic_rejection_of_Israels_civil_judiciary.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-17065-0-Theocratic_rejection_of_Israels_civil_judiciary.aspx Mon, 20 Mar 2017 02:05:00 GMT The theocratic forces among Israel's political and religious leadership have been increasingly aggressive of late, pushing to expand the jurisdiction of Israel's rabbinical courts, at the expanse of Israel's civil courts. A key element of this theocratic outlook is the rejection of the legitimacy of Israel’s laws and civil judiciary. https://hiddush.org/article-17061-0-90_dissatisfied_with_rabbinical_courts_dealings_with_Agunot.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-17061-0-90_dissatisfied_with_rabbinical_courts_dealings_with_Agunot.aspx Thu, 09 Mar 2017 13:28:00 GMT 90% of the adult Jewish public is dissatisfied with the Israeli Rabbinical Courts' way of dealing with Agunot and women whose husbands refuse to grant them divorces. 87% believe that the rabbinical courts should force husbands to grant their wives divorces in cases of domestic violence. Measuring which institutions the public trusts most, 59% of respondents trust the Supreme Court, but only 16% most trust the Rabbinate, 13% - the Knesset and 12% - the Government! https://hiddush.org/article-17053-0-A_shocking_Rabbinic_Court_ruling_regarding_a_battered_wife.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-17053-0-A_shocking_Rabbinic_Court_ruling_regarding_a_battered_wife.aspx Thu, 09 Feb 2017 23:05:00 GMT Hiddush has repeatedly challenged the continued monopoly of the Chief Rabbinate and rabbinic courts over matters of personal status of all Jews in Israel. Last week, we saw one of the most shocking and deplorable examples of why this authority should urgently be withdrawn. https://hiddush.org/article-17044-0-Landmark_Supreme_Court_cases_emblematic_of_Israels_religionstate_divide.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-17044-0-Landmark_Supreme_Court_cases_emblematic_of_Israels_religionstate_divide.aspx Thu, 12 Jan 2017 20:31:00 GMT This week has been very busy on the legal front of religious freedom & equality in Israel. In many ways, it has been symptomatic of the intensity and diversity of the many issues confronting Israel along the religion-state divide. https://hiddush.org/article-17022-0-Hiddushs_2016_findings_and_data_on_marriage.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-17022-0-Hiddushs_2016_findings_and_data_on_marriage.aspx Sun, 25 Dec 2016 11:20:00 GMT In the past year, Hiddush focused on the battle for marriage freedom in Israel as our leading cause, conducting a comprehensive series of surveys and studies that highlighted a clear trend: the Israeli Jewish public supports marriage freedom. https://hiddush.org/article-16928-0-Supreme_Court_rules_on_illegal_writs_of_refusal_from_rabbinical_court.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16928-0-Supreme_Court_rules_on_illegal_writs_of_refusal_from_rabbinical_court.aspx Tue, 19 Jul 2016 11:47:00 GMT The Supreme Court required the Attorney General's office to decide soon whether or not to file charges against the judges of the private, ultra-Orthodox rabbinical court who issued an excommunication notice to a Haredi resident Elad who are also suspected of blackmail, threatening private citizens, and obstruction of justice. https://hiddush.org/article-16924-0-Rabbi_Haskel_Looksteins_degrading_experience.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16924-0-Rabbi_Haskel_Looksteins_degrading_experience.aspx Thu, 30 Jun 2016 11:24:00 GMT If we needed any further reminder that the issue of "Who is a Jew" hits directly home in North America, the recent news regarding the refusal of the Israeli Rabbinic courts to accept Rabbi Haskel Lookstein's conversions is the most recent case in point. https://hiddush.org/article-16904-0-64_unaware_that_legal_divorce_available_only_via_Orthodox_rabbinical_courts.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16904-0-64_unaware_that_legal_divorce_available_only_via_Orthodox_rabbinical_courts.aspx Thu, 26 May 2016 09:44:00 GMT Two-thirds of the Jewish Israeli population are unaware that Jewish couples can only get legally divorced through Israel's rabbinical courts, even if they were married in civil ceremonies abroad; 57% of the public underestimate the number of Israeli citizens from the former Soviet Union who cannot get legally married. https://hiddush.org/article-16907-0-Politics_casts_shadow_over_encouraging_legal_progress__public_opinion.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16907-0-Politics_casts_shadow_over_encouraging_legal_progress__public_opinion.aspx Thu, 26 May 2016 09:07:00 GMT Hiddush derives encouragement from developments on the fronts of public opinion and the legal arena, but on the political scene, the news is more bleak than encouraging when it comes to issues of religious freedom & equality. https://hiddush.org/article-16850-0-75_support_introduction_of_civil_divorce_in_Israel.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16850-0-75_support_introduction_of_civil_divorce_in_Israel.aspx Tue, 22 Mar 2016 12:04:00 GMT Head of Hiddush Rabbi Uri Regev, esq.: "The no-confidence vote against the Orthodox establishment's monopoly is tremendous." Director of the Center for Women's Justice Dr. Susan Weiss, esq.: "The solution to the agunah crisis - civil marriage and divorce." CEO of Mavoi Satum Batya Kahana-Dror, Esq.: "Alienation from Israel's religious institutions is growing." https://hiddush.org/article-16810-0-71_of_Israeli_Jews_Rabbinates_monopoly_distances_Jews_from_Judaism.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16810-0-71_of_Israeli_Jews_Rabbinates_monopoly_distances_Jews_from_Judaism.aspx Sun, 14 Feb 2016 14:54:00 GMT Not only is the denial of the freedom to marry antithetical to core democratic principles, but it also undermines Jewish interests. 71% of the Israeli Jewish public maintain that the Chief Rabbinate's and the rabbinical courts' monopoly over marriage and divorce distances Jews from Judaism. https://hiddush.org/article-15733-0-Supreme_Court_hears_Hiddush_petition_against_coercive_rabbinical_court.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-15733-0-Supreme_Court_hears_Hiddush_petition_against_coercive_rabbinical_court.aspx Sun, 26 Jul 2015 12:50:00 GMT Justice Mazuz: “The ‘Writs of Refusal’ are intended to deny a person his rights as a man and a citizen by blocking his/her way to State institutions (i.e. - the courts) that can render him remedy in realizing his rights.” https://hiddush.org/article-6675-0-Israels_High_Court_Unanimously_Agrees_with_Hiddush.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-6675-0-Israels_High_Court_Unanimously_Agrees_with_Hiddush.aspx Fri, 14 Nov 2014 11:47:00 GMT November 12 marked a major, promising step in our battles that will surely become a landmark legal case on the road to ensuring Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state. Privately issued "writs of refusal" excommunicating those who turn to Israel's legal system for justice are illegal - the private rabbinical courts continue acting illegally in defiance of the law. https://hiddush.org/article-2587-0-Israels_circumcision_controversy_an_opportunity_for_change.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2587-0-Israels_circumcision_controversy_an_opportunity_for_change.aspx Thu, 26 Dec 2013 09:53:00 GMT Until Israel's Supreme Court intervened, an Israeli mother was fined $150 by Israel's Supreme Rabbinical Court of Appeals for every day she did not circumcise her son. The case is not over yet and serves as a key indicator of the growing influence of Israel's rabbinical courts. https://hiddush.org/article-2584-0-Unfolding_circumcision_controversy_makes_the_case_for_civil_marriage_and_divorce_in_Israel.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2584-0-Unfolding_circumcision_controversy_makes_the_case_for_civil_marriage_and_divorce_in_Israel.aspx Thu, 19 Dec 2013 13:54:00 GMT In light of the recent developments in Israel's circumcision controversy, Hiddush CEO Rabbi Uri Regev points out that this dispute could be easily handled outside of the rabbinical courts if civil marriage and divorce were allowed for Israelis. https://hiddush.org/article-2512-0-Hiddush_blasts_rabbinic_ruling_against_iPhones.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2512-0-Hiddush_blasts_rabbinic_ruling_against_iPhones.aspx Mon, 05 Aug 2013 09:41:00 GMT Bnei Brak rabbinical court head: It’s no mitzva to return "non-kosher" smartphones that people have left behind. Hiddush CEO responds: It's no mitzva to reject the rule of law. https://hiddush.org/article-2457-0-Hiddush_petitions_to_the_Supreme_Court_against_rabbinical_courts_excommunication_practices.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2457-0-Hiddush_petitions_to_the_Supreme_Court_against_rabbinical_courts_excommunication_practices.aspx Mon, 20 May 2013 19:01:00 GMT In a landmark case, Hiddush petitioned to the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of an ultra-Orthodox resident of Elad to annul the writ of refusal issued by a rabbinical court for filing a case in Israel's civil courts. https://hiddush.org/article-2437-0-Hiddush_appeal_brings_prosecution_against_rabbinic_courts_who_threaten_excommunication.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2437-0-Hiddush_appeal_brings_prosecution_against_rabbinic_courts_who_threaten_excommunication.aspx Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:31:00 GMT In response to an appeal filed by Hiddush- Freedom of Religion for Israel, Yehuda Weinstein, Israel's Attorney General directed the Ministry of Religious Services to take legal action against private rabbinic authorities that attempt to excommunicate individuals who file cases in State civil courts. https://hiddush.org/article-2290-0-Hiddush_outraged_by_possibility_of_allmale_committee_for_Rabbinic_appointment.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2290-0-Hiddush_outraged_by_possibility_of_allmale_committee_for_Rabbinic_appointment.aspx Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:10:00 GMT Suggested appointments for the Committee for Rabbinical Judges would leave the committee without female members, exacerbating and intensifying the already gender-discriminatory rabbinic court system https://hiddush.org/article-2105-0-ExultraOrthodox_mom_won’t_lose_child.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2105-0-ExultraOrthodox_mom_won’t_lose_child.aspx Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:23:00 GMT Haredi father sought to deny his ex-wife custody of their children. The court denied his request