Rabbinate

The rabbinate as an extra-territorial entity - opinion

The rabbinical courts operate according to their own internal rules, with virtually no external oversight.

REPRESENTATIVES OF the Chief Rabbinate of Israel cross Jaffa Street in Jerusalem as they deliver a kosher certificate to a local restaurant.
People walk past a projection depicting Israeli and US flags on the walls of Jerusalem's Old City on Oct. 22, 2025.

Rabbinic diplomacy between Israel and US explored in new exhibition

Newly elected Tel Aviv-Jaffa Chief Rabbi Zevadia Cohen, April 26, 2026.

Shas-backed Zevadia Cohen elected Tel Aviv chief rabbi after High Court delays, political battle

A ‘MOHEL’ holds a scalpel as he performs a circumcision

Third complaint filed against man suspected of causing infant's death after circumcision


New to Israel? Rabbis here aren't the same as they are elsewhere - opinion

Many immigrants assume that the rabbinic model they knew in their country of origin applies in Israel. This is not the case.

 Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Shlomo Amar visits at a Yeshiva in Hispin, northern Israel, October 21, 2021.

The saga of hotels’ late Shabbat and holiday checkout

Why do hotel guests, some of them wealthy, accept the procedure of paying for late check-out abroad, but expect it gratis in Israel?

 SHAS MK Erez Malul, an advocate of free late hotel checkout for Shabbat stays.

Kosher food in Israel is an $800 million racket of corruption - opinion

The direct cost of corrupt kashrut services is very high and burdens the economy with about $800 million, as well as raising the cost of almost all goods to our families, rich and poor.

 Kashrut certificates outside a restaurant in Jerusalem.

Israel's Chief Rabbinate has become a hereditary monarchy - opinion

The position of chief rabbi, which has a ten-year tenure, has become a political tool and the province of members of a few elite families who monopolize it.

 ASHKENAZI CHIEF Rabbi David Lau (left) and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef: The silence of our two chief rabbis is thunderously indicative of the abject state of these once meaningful and relevant positions, the writer argues.

Shas are seeking to deepen their grip over state religious institutions - opinion

The state-religious infrastructure has been used systematically to build a political power base.

 MK ARYE DERI leads a parliamentary faction meeting of his Shas party, in the Knesset, last month.

Israel's chief rabbi elections tainted by personal interests - opinion

Instead of passing laws that help the people and the nation, its members are focused on helping themselves, or in the case of the chief rabbinate, one of their brothers.

 MK ARYE DERI is in a bind, says the writer. On the one hand he has the opportunity to appoint his brother as chief rabbi, but that would put him at odds with the Yosef family, his political patrons.

Is Israel taking a page out of the Hungary and Poland playbook? - analysis

The makeup of the judicial selection committee is an issue that is still on the table, officials say.

 The building of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel is located in Jerualem.

Chief Rabbinate election delay bill passes first reading

According to Israeli law, the chief rabbis serve for 10 years, and religious councils for five years.

 ASHKENAZI CHIEF Rabbi David Lau and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef at an event in Jerusalem earlier this year. Who is lining up to replace them?

Ukrainians trying to convert to Judaism in Israel face Kafkaesque trials

Yael and Aaron Agpov from Ukraine had tried to convert to Judaism in 2022, but then the war broke out. This, plus Israel's Kafkaesque bureaucracy, thrust them into uncertainty.

 THE AGPOV family with ITIM head Rabbi Seth Farber (L) after receiving Israeli citizenship at the Netanya Interior Ministry offices.

Converting to Judaism in Israel is nearly impossible - ITIM report

The number applying for conversion in the last decade has been low but even among those who did apply, fewer than half were able to complete the process.

Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews perform a brit mila in the ultra-orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem on November  9, 2014