Freedom of religion in israel

Shavuot and Mount Sinai: Why modern Jews still wrestle with the Torah

The debate over Torah from Sinai may depend less on proof than on the condition of the soul.

Scribe Nadav Elhadad writes a Torah scroll at Safed’s Mount Sinai Institute, in Feb.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the general Conference of Fatah Youth in Ramallah, with a backdrop including a portrait of Abbas and Yasser Arafat, November 27, 2025; illustrative.

PA drafts constitution, omits Jewish ties to Jerusalem, calls for Sharia legal system

SIMCHAT TORAH at the Gush Etzion junction.

Simchat Torah: Divine fire and national legacy

 Muslims pray on the first Friday of Ramadan, at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in Jerusalem's Old City, March 7, 2025

Police on guard as tens of thousands of Muslims hold Ramadan prayers on Temple Mount


Where will Miriam Naor go with the Meron disaster state inquiry?

Naor is a moderate, but she is secular and a moderate activist.

     Former Supreme Court President Miriam Naor at the Supreme Court hall during a ceremony for outgoing Supreme Court Judge Uri Shoham in Jerusalem on August 2, 2018.

IDF urged to allow chametz on army bases during Passover

The letter to the Chief of Staff asks to ensure the supply of kosher food for Passover does not justify a ban on the holding of chametz by secular or non-Jews.

IDF SOLDIERS from the 669 Unit during a training exercise last year.

What I told a recent State Department conference

What’s the state of religious freedom in Israel and the Arab world?

AN ARAB woman walks past a Jewish couple at the Western Wall

The Honey Foundation is supporting religious pluralism in Israel

While the ultra-Orthodox receive the vast majority of public funding, only 10% of Israelis are ultra-Orthodox.

The opening performance at the Honey Conference: Rabbi Ruth Gan Kagan and Daphna Rosenberg of Nava Tehila (Jerusalem) and Rabbi Esteban Gottfried of Beit Tefilah Israeli (Tel Aviv)

Liberman files High Court petition demanding end to rabbinate's DNA tests

“It is outrageous to hear that only immigrants from the former Soviet Union are suspected time after time by the rabbinical courts that they are ‘non-Jews’,” said Liberman.

Former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman launches Yisrael Beitenu on January 20, 2019

Israelis want American Jewish help in promoting religious pluralism

As it does every year, the survey found that Jewish Israelis are far more liberal on religious issues than their government.

Flags of the United States and Israel

Freedom of religion

My concern is the guarantee of freedom of religion. The lack of that freedom makes us – ironically – the only nation in the free world in which complete freedom of religion does not exist for Jews.

An illustration by Pepe Fainberg

It happened to my family. It can happen to yours.

“It’s sad and so unfair. Did you see how proud she was tonight? But unless someone figures out how to fix things she’s going to wake up one day and find out...”

The Rabbinical Court of Tel Aviv

Capital’s First Station complex won’t close on Shabbat

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who has opposed closing the complex on Shabbat but could not muster a majority against it, said he was pleased by the Regional Committee’s decision.

Jerusalem’s cultural and entertainment centers are blossoming, from the renovated First Station complex (above) to the brand new Cinema City

The state comptroller’s report and religious services

Let us hope that by the next state comptroller’s report, we will have succeeded in democratizing Israel’s religious establishment by giving greater control of religious affairs to local communities.

A man stands in front of the Western Wall during a special prayer for rain in Jerusalem's Old City, December 28, 2017.