The Rabbinate

Elections for the Chief Rabbinate Council and the two chief rabbis (“the Chief Rabbinate elections”) will likely be announced in the near term. The present document suggests a number of fundamental changes to its membership, with the goal of making it more representative.

The aim of this review is to present the views of the Jewish public in Israel regarding the institution of the Chief Rabbinate, based on the findings of an opinion survey that was conducted in May 2024.

Dr. Ariel Finkelstein warns that the proposed new "Rabbis Law" would weaken the standing of local communities, could lead to cronyism, reduce women's representation and more. 

They do reduce the Rabbinate's centralized power, but in very different ways, which fundamentally upholds the rabbis' authority, rather than undermining it

Most of the public support limiting local authority rabbis' term of service to five years and giving them the option to be re-appointed at the end of each term

88% of the products sold in supermarkets in Israel have duplicate kashrut certifications resulting in excess costs to both suppliers and consumers. Analysis by IDI experts Finkelstein and Abensour reveals why reform is overdue

Reinforcing the Rabbinate's monopoly on conversion to Judaism places unnecessary roadblocks before those who want to join the Jewish people and deepens the rift with the Diaspora

The Israeli religious courts are being handed back to the ultra-Orthodox parties - will they adhere to professional standards?

At IDI's conference Former Defense Minister MK Avigdor Liberman said he will not advance the recruitment plan he had drafted with the Ministry of Defense. "Every 18-year-old will be required to enlist."

After years of struggles over issues related to religion and state, we hereby agree to adopt a new approach, which will create a covenant to provide a new system of arrangements and agreements to strengthen the link between the Israeli public and the Jewish identity of the State of Israel.

Turning 1.2 million Israelis with FSU origins into a state-sanctioned punching bag is intolerable, and calls for radical and immediate change

Full separation of religion and state isn't possible, but why is the Chief Rabbinate in the kashrut business?

IDI is calling to amend the Kashrut Supervision Bill, so that instead of creating an additional layer of intermediaries, the market will be open, transparent and regulated by Rabbinate authorized rabbis.

Step by step, the Chief Rabbinate is turning itself into the central source of halakhic legitimacy not just within Israel’s borders but beyond them, and becoming a global force through securing its power all over the Jewish world.

The Israel Democracy Institute on the Ministry of Finance and Rabbinate's decision to preserve the Rabbinate’s monopoly over the kashrut market in Israel: the consumer will be the one to pay 

In order to grant better, cheaper and friendlier kosher certification, we must privatize the kosher certification system, break up the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly, and rely on the unwavering market of 70 percent of Israeli Jews in the state who eat kosher food.

The relationship between religion and state in Israel is stormy. Lately, it seems the ultra-Orthodox have launched a new offensive on several fronts. This op-ed was originally published by JNS.org.

Following today's advancement of the Mikveh Bill by the Knesset Plenum, IDI President Yohanan Plesner said, "The Mikveh Bill is not worthy of being included in the laws of Israel."

The Israel Democracy Institute's Dr. Shuki Friedman took part in a "Nation, Religion and State" coalition meeting  under the oversight of Knesset Members (MKs) Aliza Lavie and Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid). The topic: Finding alternatives to marrying through the Israeli Rabbinate.

According to Dr. Shuki Friedman, the rabbinate's failure to provide adequate religious services caused the current trend towards privatization of religious services, which is creating a de-facto separation between religion and the state.

IDI President Yohanan Plesner writes that Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist and secular Jews are all members of the Jewish people. The Israeli government must grant equal recognition to the central movements within Judaism, including equal funding for all.

To what extent should the Rabbinate interfere in a citizen's plate? Dr. Shuki Friedman, argues that kosher supervision should be based on trust not coercion, and warns that the attempt to preserve the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly on the kosher laws is a symptom of a larger problem.

In an article in <em>The Jewish Week</em>, Ms. Ayelet Libson of IDI's Human Rights and Judaism project questions the role of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and offers her view of what it could be.

In an article in The Jewish Week, Gitit Paz, a young scholar in IDI's Human Rights and Judaism project, discusses the status of mamzer in Jewish law and in contemporary Israel. 

Rabbi Dr. Benjamin (Benny) Lau, head of IDI's Human Rights and Judaism in Action project, remembers Rabbi Ovadia Yosef as a courageous halakhic decisor who championed the needs of the oppressed.

Should the American model of separation of church and state be applied to Israel? In an article in <em>The Jewish Week</em>, IDI's Yair Sheleg argues that Israel needs a unique model.

In an op-ed in Maariv, Yair Sheleg argues that the current roles of the Israeli chief rabbinate should be split and the rabbinate should serve solely in its representative capacity in the future.

IDI Vice President Prof. Yedidia Stern responds to the State Comptroller's findings on conversion in Israel and calls for a solution that will enable Israelis from the former Soviet Union to join the ranks of the Jewish people.

In response to the preliminary passage of an amendment that would exempt religious educational institutions from complying with accessibility requirement, a group of leading Israeli rabbis appealed to Israel's elected officials and requested their intervention to prevent the exemption from applying to religious schools. Rabbi Shay Piron, who directs IDI's work in this field under the auspices of IDI's Human Rights and Judaism project, coordinated this important effort. 

In an op-ed in Yedioth Ahronoth, IDI Vice President Yedidia Z. Stern responds to the proposed "Dov Lior Bill" and decries the possibility that members of the clergy—of any religion—be above the law and immune from prosecution for incitement to violence when their religious teachings may encourage criminal behavior.

Are the ostensibly anti-Arab bills under consideration by the Knesset, the “Rabbis’ Letter” that forbids the sale of real estate to non-Jews, and the findings of the 2010 Israeli Democracy Index clear-cut indicators that racism is on the rise in Israel today? Or are more complex factors at play? IDI Research Fellow Yair Sheleg shares his views on this matter.

The "Rabbis' Letter" signed by dozens of community rabbis in Israel in December 2010 asserts that Jewish law forbids the rental and sale of homes in Israel to non-Jews. Is renting property to non-Jews indeed forbidden by Jewish law? IDI Researcher Dr. Eliezer Hadad surveys opinions by contemporary rabbis who adopted a universalistic approach and found a halakhic basis for the equal rights mandated by both international norms and the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

On December 7, 2010, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Tzfat, and 49 other municipal rabbis in Israel issued a letter ruling that Jewish law forbids the sale or rental of property in Israel to gentiles. IDI joined the voices that condemned this letter.

In this article, IDI Vice President Prof. Yedidia Z. Stern explains the current conversion crisis in Israel, reviews the evolution of attitudes towards conversion in halakhic literature over the ages, and concludes with a proposal that is compatible with Jewish law while responding to pressing contemporary needs.

The following op-ed by IDI Vice President of Research Prof. Yedidia Z. Stern was originally published in Hebrew in the <em>Yedioth Ahronoth</em> daily newspaper on December 8, 2010, just before the Knesset was scheduled to vote on a bill that would recognize the validity of all conversions performed within the context of the service in the Israel Defense Forces—a vote that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed by several days due to competing pressure within the political system. It urges the Israeli government to fend off political pressure, act morally, and assert that anyone who has converted to Judaism in the IDF is a Jew.

IDI Research Fellow Yair Sheleg argues that it is time to modify the requirements for those who wish to join the Jewish People, with the State overriding the religious establishment through legislation in order to resolve this issue, if necessary.

For many American Jews, identification with the State of Israel is a significant component of their Jewish identity.

The implications of the Supreme Court's ruling go far beyond the Kashrut market.