Israel without a chief rabbi for first time in a century
The government has failed to set a date for their successors’ election
Chief Rabbinate
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Opinion Growing up in Israel, I had never heard of Rabbi Sacks. After his death, I fell in love with his message
In Nov. 2020, I came across a minor story on an inside page of an Israeli newspaper, reporting that Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom “and one of the most important thinkers of our time,” had passed away. I had never come across his name before, so I thought that…
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Fast Forward Israeli Chief Rabbi calls former Soviet immigrants ‘religion-hating gentiles’
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi is under fire for calling immigrants from the former Soviet Union “Communist, religion-hating” gentiles. At a rabbinical conference in Jerusalem last week, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef criticized Israel’s Law of Return for granting citizenship to Russians who are not Jewish according to Orthodox religious law, the Yediot Acharonot daily…
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Fast Forward Jerusalem Chief Rabbi: Homosexuality Is ‘A Wild Lust That Needs To Be Overcome’
(JTA) — The Sephardi chief rabbi of Jerusalem said gay people cannot be religious Jews and called homosexuality “a wild lust that needs to be overcome.” Rabbi Shlomo Amar made the remarks last week during a sermon. A video of some of his comments was published Monday by the Israeli public broadcaster Kan. “There are…
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Opinion Israeli Rabbis Are Using DNA Testing To Police Civil Rights. This Shouldn’t Shock You.
On Tuesday, Judy Maltz reported in Haaretz that the Israeli Rabbinate, which controls conversion, marriage and divorce in Israel, is using DNA testing to verify a person’s Jewishness. Since a person who isn’t Jewish can’t marry a Jew in Israel, which has no civil marriage, the rabbinate is using the DNA test to deny people…
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Community Jews Worldwide Must Resist The Power Grab Of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate
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…
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Fast Forward Why Were There No Women On The Chief Rabbinate’s ‘Blacklist’?
NEW YORK (JTA) – The Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s so-called “blacklist” of Diaspora rabbis runs the denominational gamut. The rabbis on the list, who got there by writing letters confirming the Jewish identities of immigrants that were rejected by the Chief Rabbinate in 2016, are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform — and even from the smaller Reconstructionist and…
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Opinion American Orthodox Rabbis Don’t Trust Women By Themselves In Mikvehs. Why?
In the past few years, the American Jewish establishment has spoken out against the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s refusal — sometimes retroactive — to recognize conversions and marriages performed by American rabbis, one of whom, most notably, oversaw the conversion of Ivanka Trump. For many American Jews, the chief rabbinate was, once again, being unnecessarily strict…
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