Israeli rabbinate

Chief Rabbinate Council disputes Tzohar kashrut approval hours after authorization

“The approval was granted unlawfully and did not go through the Chief Rabbinate Council as required,” Director General of the Ministry of Religious Services Yehuda Avidan said.

A Tzohar kashrut sticker in a window
Three women who arrived in the morning to sit the Rabbinate exams finally do so at a four-hour delay, April 27, 2026

Rabbinate accused of defying court as Israeli women left waiting for exams

SUPREME COURT Justice Noam Sohlberg attends a ceremony for fallen Israeli soldiers whose burial place is unknown at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on March 6.

Rabbinate seeks retrial on ruling allowing women to take exams, blames 'halachic noncompliance'

 Ten Israeli couples with a member serving in the IDF taking part in a mass wedding ceremony part of Chabad of Savyon’s “Marrying the Warriors”, in Tel Aviv Port, March 5, 2024.

Israelis want civil marriage, to break rabbinic monopoly in new Tu B'Av poll


Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi: Split with Diaspora 'fake news'

David Lau says accusations regarding a lack of access to the main Western Wall plaza were “lies and falsehood.”

David Lau

Israeli Chief Rabbinate blacklists 160 Diaspora rabbis

Among the list are several prominent Orthodox rabbinical leaders from the US, Israel and Canada.

The rabbis of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate

American Jewish converts ‘hurt’ and ‘humiliated’ by conversion bill

"Israel’s latest conversion bill is only a more institutionalized manifestation of this social discomfort."

Dorian Stuber and his wife, Marianne Tettlebaum, at the Jewish Federation of Arkansas Tikkun Olam banquet in Fall 2016

The future of Judaism is at stake

The current crisis is important not only because of what happens at the Western Wall and the relations between Israel and American Jewry, but because the very nature of Judaism is being undermined.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touches the stones of the Western Wall

Vatican names first Israeli rabbi as adviser

Two rabbis, including Israeli Abraham Steinberg, join the Vatican's Pontifical Academy advisory committee.

Pope Francis waves as he delivers a "Urbi et Orbi" message at the Vatican April 5, 2015

In stinging blow to Diaspora Jewry, government reneges on Western Wall deal

Cabinet also approves conversion law giving sole power to Chief Rabbinate.

Netnyahu, cabinet ministers hold meeting at Western Wall ‏

Rabbinate seeking lawyers to fight Western Wall changes

The government decided to allow women to pray in the Western Wall alone and alongside men, yet no such section is open; Chief Rabbinate demands right to speak for itself in court.

Woman pray at Western Wall

JPost Editorial: Crime and no punishment

The mother’s anguish was not only directed at religious hypocrisy.

Moti Elon

An independent kashrut system takes shape

Hashgacha Pratit’s supervision is increasingly in demand, but Heaven forbid anyone use the ‘K-word’

RABBI AHARON Leibowitz (right), one of the founders of ‘Hashgacha Pratit,’ is photographed on the job at the Kaima Farm in Beit Zeit alongside two young farm helpers.

In Israeli first, divorce refuser to face criminal prosecution

Husband in question has refused to give a divorce for 17 years and has sat in jail for most of that time.

Tzviya Gordetski.