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Dr. Shuki Friedman is Vice President of the Jewish People Policy Institute and a lecturer in law at the Peres Academic Center.
Dr. Shuki Friedman is Vice President of the Jewish People Policy Institute and a lecturer in law at the Peres Academic Center.
Israel’s political past shows that governments have less impact on everyday life than we think, even when they actually implement policies
Recently, two seemingly unrelated events transpired in the relations between Israeli and American Jewry: Last month, the Jewish Agency’s board of governors voted for Isaac Herzog (former chairman of the Labor Party), to become chairman of the organization, in a direct rebuttal of the prime minister’s choice of candidate. Next, two senior ministers avoided taking…
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate is becoming the Chief Rabbinate of the Jewish world before our very eyes — a development which is likely to have fateful consequences for the unity of the Jewish people. Within Israel, the Rabbinate’s strict halachic approach is causing societal rifts and marginalizing many of the country’s citizens. While the Rabbinate still…
Recently Tzohar, a Zionist-Orthodox rabbinic organization, announced their establishment of a private entity to oversee kosher dietary regulations —kashrut— in Israel. The move is another nail in the coffin of the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over religious life, and another important milestone on the way to the separation of religion and state in Israel. The establishment…
For decades, religious and ultra-Orthodox members of Knesset, backed and encouraged by their rabbis, have worked to inject the secular state with as much Judaism as possible. In an extended and collective effort, they have done all they can to pass religious laws, to base the governing of the state on Jewish law, and to…
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