https://hiddush.org/subchannel-83-0-Voices_and_Visions.aspx This is an RSS update from channel Voices and Visions on Hiddush website Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:23:14 GMT He-il https://hiddush.org/article-23570-0-Utah_Weddings__Potential_Breakthrough.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23570-0-Utah_Weddings__Potential_Breakthrough.aspx Mon, 01 Aug 2022 19:52:00 GMT In a precedent-setting decision, the Lod District Court ruled earlier this month that civil marriages performed via Zoom under foreign auspices for couples in Israel will be inscribed in Israel’s Population Registry. https://hiddush.org/article-23526-0-Assault_religious_freedom_assault_democracy.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23526-0-Assault_religious_freedom_assault_democracy.aspx Wed, 24 Nov 2021 22:45:00 GMT Half of Israel was up in arms earlier this week, when a tape from a political meeting held by Likud MK Dudi Amsalem leaked to the media. When you read the following selection of his outbursts, you will understand why the media and public reaction was so harsh. https://hiddush.org/article-23484-0-So_who_owns_Judaism.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23484-0-So_who_owns_Judaism.aspx Wed, 07 Apr 2021 22:36:00 GMT MK Israel Eichler [United Torah Judaism] had this to say yesterday about the new Labor MK, Rabbi Gilad Kariv when the new MKs were sworn in and the new Knesset launched its anticipated stormy, possibly short lived, term. Kariv was, until recently, the Executive Director of the Israeli Reform Movement, and Eichler’s vitriol is not directed against him personally, but rather against all Judaism’s liberal streams: https://hiddush.org/article-23471-0-A_glimpse_through_the_eyes_of_the_English_media.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23471-0-A_glimpse_through_the_eyes_of_the_English_media.aspx Thu, 18 Feb 2021 23:42:00 GMT There is not a day that the media in Israel does not deal with the meeting points Between the ultra-Orthodox and the secular, as well as between religion and politics in the context of the pandemic. https://hiddush.org/article-23306-0-Agunah_Day_For_women_in_Israel_marriage_is_captivity.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23306-0-Agunah_Day_For_women_in_Israel_marriage_is_captivity.aspx Wed, 20 Mar 2019 09:43:00 GMT Dr. Susan Weiss, Esq., Executive Director of the Center for Women's Justice, writes a powerful article for 2019 International Agunah Day. In the spirit of the Book of Esther she challenges the common sense regarding agunot – Jewish women held, like Esther, in marital captivity. https://hiddush.org/article-23303-0-Israel_is_losing_the_Jewish_people.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23303-0-Israel_is_losing_the_Jewish_people.aspx Tue, 19 Feb 2019 14:27:00 GMT Former Israeli MFA Deputy Director General for North America, Baruch Bina, published an article in Hebrew titled ‘Israel is losing the Jewish people’. Hiddush shares some of its key assertions and observations in English here. https://hiddush.org/article-23288-0-21_MKs_responding_to_Pittsburgh__“Time_for_Equality”.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23288-0-21_MKs_responding_to_Pittsburgh__“Time_for_Equality”.aspx Wed, 07 Nov 2018 22:29:00 GMT The MKs highlighted different aspects of the need to respond to the Pittsburgh massacre, not merely by identifying with the loss and pain of the Jewish community, not only by decrying growing anti-Semitic outbursts, but by changing Israel’s policies. https://hiddush.org/article-23287-0-Israeli_media_speaks_out_for_recognizing_the_streams.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-23287-0-Israeli_media_speaks_out_for_recognizing_the_streams.aspx Wed, 07 Nov 2018 21:57:00 GMT Anti-Semites don’t distinguish between Jews according to their denominations. That is a practice reserved for the Israeli government. Israeli media personalities and others have drawn conclusions from the massacre in Pittsburgh, which links this tragedy to Israel's religion-state policies. https://hiddush.org/article-22143-0-Yom_Kippur_sermon_5778_Suite_117.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-22143-0-Yom_Kippur_sermon_5778_Suite_117.aspx Sat, 30 Sep 2017 12:25:00 GMT The Israeli government’s decision to back out of its pledge to expand a non-Orthodox prayer space at the Western Wall, and ongoing discrimination against the Reform and Conservative movements, have brought to a head a crisis that has been brewing for decades. If not resolved, this crisis will destroy the relationship between the Jewish state and the Jewish people. https://hiddush.org/article-22142-0-Rosh_HaShana_sermon_5778_Being_a_Good_Jew.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-22142-0-Rosh_HaShana_sermon_5778_Being_a_Good_Jew.aspx Wed, 20 Sep 2017 22:05:00 GMT Most of us were born after the rise of a Jewish State, and can't imagine life otherwise. But some people consider it God's miracle. https://hiddush.org/article-22133-0-The_Bitter_Taste_of_Victory__by_Rabbi_Pamela_Frydman.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-22133-0-The_Bitter_Taste_of_Victory__by_Rabbi_Pamela_Frydman.aspx Thu, 07 Sep 2017 13:19:00 GMT On August 31st, the Israeli Supreme Court took up a matter brought by Hiddush, Women of the Wall and the Reform and Conservative Movements. The issue at hand is whether to require the government to adhere to, and implement, the Kotel agreement. https://hiddush.org/article-21130-0-Comprehensive_interview_with_Rabbi_Shlomo_Riskin_in_Israeli_media.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-21130-0-Comprehensive_interview_with_Rabbi_Shlomo_Riskin_in_Israeli_media.aspx Tue, 29 Aug 2017 11:34:00 GMT A recent detailed interview with Rabbi Shlomo Riskin appeared in the original Hebrew in Makor Rishon, with select paragraphs translated into English below. https://hiddush.org/article-17069-0-A_reflection_for_Pesach_2017.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-17069-0-A_reflection_for_Pesach_2017.aspx Wed, 05 Apr 2017 22:28:00 GMT We at Hiddush realize that we need to view the concept of freedom beyond simply delivery from slavery, and as we celebrate Passover this year, we are ever motivated to bring Israel more fully into a state of religious freedom and equality. https://hiddush.org/article-16977-0-Sukkot_2016_Batya_Kahana_Dror_Esq.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16977-0-Sukkot_2016_Batya_Kahana_Dror_Esq.aspx Fri, 21 Oct 2016 12:57:00 GMT Batya Kahana Dror, Esq. writes, "Getting married via the Rabbinate is not fitting for all couples. Sometimes this clashes with their worldviews, and sometimes it creates bureaucratic difficulties in simply obtaining the Rabbinate's permission to marry at all. Divorcing through the Rabbinate is also more difficult." https://hiddush.org/article-16976-0-Sukkot_2016_Rabbi_Meir_Azari.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16976-0-Sukkot_2016_Rabbi_Meir_Azari.aspx Fri, 21 Oct 2016 12:50:00 GMT Rabbi Meir Azari writes, "The recent years have seen a blossoming of Reform communities, Conservative, secular and the like, situated between what an Israeli would refer to as Orthodox and secular. Many are seeking a Jewish voice for good and equality." https://hiddush.org/article-16975-0-Sukkot_2016_Tehila_FriedmanNachalon.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16975-0-Sukkot_2016_Tehila_FriedmanNachalon.aspx Fri, 21 Oct 2016 12:45:00 GMT Tehila Friedman-Nachalon writes, "The battles that Hiddush sees as battles for "religious freedom," I perceive as battles over the substance and understanding of the 'Jewish' in 'Jewish and democratic.'" https://hiddush.org/article-16974-0-Sukkot_2016_Prof_Pinchas_Shiffman.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16974-0-Sukkot_2016_Prof_Pinchas_Shiffman.aspx Fri, 21 Oct 2016 12:36:00 GMT Professor Pinchas Shiffman writes, "The problem facing stringent religious Judaism is whether to accept a person who lives among us and truly wants to be a Jew, but does intend to be religious. This person's rejection reinforces the split between Jews according to religion and Jews according to nationality." https://hiddush.org/article-16973-0-Sukkot_2016_Smadar_Dekel_Naim_Esq.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16973-0-Sukkot_2016_Smadar_Dekel_Naim_Esq.aspx Fri, 21 Oct 2016 12:27:00 GMT Smadar Dekel Naim, Esq. writes, "There is no reason whatsoever to be party to this religious coercion, especially at this most precious, family-oriented moment, and in the most personal of matters. Why should we hold non-egalitarian ceremonies, with rabbis who don't identify with our ways of life? Many of whom actually despise us?" https://hiddush.org/article-16972-0-Sukkot_2016_Shira_Ben_SassonFurstenberg.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16972-0-Sukkot_2016_Shira_Ben_SassonFurstenberg.aspx Fri, 21 Oct 2016 12:11:00 GMT Shira Ben Sasson-Furstenberg writes, "I don't want to be a Torah observant woman that is a guest in Israel's Jewish arena because she is not a man. It is expected that she will not participate, that she will remain behind the mehitza, at the back of the bus." https://hiddush.org/article-16925-0-Israeli_religious_court_goes_off_the_deep_end.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16925-0-Israeli_religious_court_goes_off_the_deep_end.aspx Wed, 13 Jul 2016 13:37:00 GMT Why would a rabbinic court in the world’s only Jewish state do something that would blatantly turn off most of the world’s Jews? https://hiddush.org/article-16909-0-A_Missed_Opportunity_to_Support_Secular_Life_in_Israel.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16909-0-A_Missed_Opportunity_to_Support_Secular_Life_in_Israel.aspx Fri, 06 May 2016 10:44:00 GMT The rabbinate sees itself as waging a culture war, and it has been winning. Since the state’s founding rabbinic power thwarts the development of a secular conception of citizenship. Hiddush polled Israeli Jews and found that 71% support the freedom to marry and divorce independent of the Orthodox rabbinate. https://hiddush.org/article-16908-0-Israeli_Left_Must_Internalize_That_ultraOrthodox_Parties_Are_Not_Partners.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-16908-0-Israeli_Left_Must_Internalize_That_ultraOrthodox_Parties_Are_Not_Partners.aspx Wed, 16 Mar 2016 10:40:00 GMT ​ How is it that the left-wing and center opposition factions hardly deal with issues of state and religion? Is the opposition again deluding itself that the ultra-Orthodox parties will reward it by forming a government with it? https://hiddush.org/article-12741-0-Rabbi_John_Rosove_The_New_Israeli_Government_and_UltraOrthodox_Parties.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-12741-0-Rabbi_John_Rosove_The_New_Israeli_Government_and_UltraOrthodox_Parties.aspx Wed, 06 May 2015 09:33:00 GMT As he strives to form a government, Prime Minister Netanyahu is making deals with small parties in exchange for their support. https://hiddush.org/article-4643-0-Rabbi_Elli_Fischer_Not_All_Orthodox_Rabbis_Oppose_Civil_Marriage_In_Israel.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-4643-0-Rabbi_Elli_Fischer_Not_All_Orthodox_Rabbis_Oppose_Civil_Marriage_In_Israel.aspx Tue, 01 Jul 2014 20:24:00 GMT Freedom of marriage in Israel is an issue for anyone who believes in the future of Israel's Jewish and democratic identity. https://hiddush.org/article-2626-0-Join_Hiddush_in_celebrating_the_Festival_of_Freedom.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2626-0-Join_Hiddush_in_celebrating_the_Festival_of_Freedom.aspx Sun, 13 Apr 2014 10:43:00 GMT Hiddush is pleased to offer our friends and followers the 2014 Passover Supplement. This year, we renew the call for freedom of marriage and divorce in Israel for Israelis and all world Jewry! https://hiddush.org/article-2613-0-Susie_Gelman_After_Pew_do_we_really_need_to_argue_over_who_is_a_Jew.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2613-0-Susie_Gelman_After_Pew_do_we_really_need_to_argue_over_who_is_a_Jew.aspx Sun, 23 Feb 2014 09:54:00 GMT The former President of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and North American Co-Chair of the 2013 General Assembly writes about the recent controversy over MK David Rotem's discriminatory remarks about Reform Judaism. https://hiddush.org/article-2591-0-Rabbi_Mark_Levin_Citizen_or_Consumer_.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2591-0-Rabbi_Mark_Levin_Citizen_or_Consumer_.aspx Thu, 09 Jan 2014 08:56:00 GMT Rabbi Mark Levin of Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, Kansas shares his 5772/2002 Rosh Hashanah drasha about the obligation of American Jewry to take a stake in Israeli affairs- specifically regarding religion and state. https://hiddush.org/article-2586-0-Rabbi_Lisa_HochbergMiller_What_American_Jews_Can_Do_for_Israeli_Pluralism.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2586-0-Rabbi_Lisa_HochbergMiller_What_American_Jews_Can_Do_for_Israeli_Pluralism.aspx Wed, 25 Dec 2013 12:07:00 GMT Rabbi Hochberg-Miller, from Temple Beth Torah in Ventura, CA writes about the story of Sara and Tzachi, a couple from Israel who had to leave their country to marry only because of Sarah's Conservative conversion. https://hiddush.org/article-2572-0-A_conversation_with_Amichai_LauLavie_America_Israel_and_the_perfect_Jewish_democracy__.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-2572-0-A_conversation_with_Amichai_LauLavie_America_Israel_and_the_perfect_Jewish_democracy__.aspx Mon, 25 Nov 2013 10:02:00 GMT Are there fundamental differences between American and Israeli Judaism? What is the perfect Jewish democracy? https://hiddush.org/article-9706-0-Rabbi_David_Golinkin_Why_the_State_of_Israel_should_abolish_the_Chief_Rabbinate.aspx https://hiddush.org/article-9706-0-Rabbi_David_Golinkin_Why_the_State_of_Israel_should_abolish_the_Chief_Rabbinate.aspx Mon, 25 Nov 2013 09:07:00 GMT Rabbi David Golinkin explains why the Chief Rabbinate should be abolished.