Israeli rabbinate

ITIM organization asks High Court to bar draft evaders from Rabbinate exam benefits

ITIM asked the High Court to bar men from using yeshiva study completed without regularized military status to qualify for Rabbinate certification.

The Supreme Court convenes to maintain the freeze on the law limiting enforcement against haredi (ultra-Orthodox) draft dodgers, July 28, 2026.
A Tzohar kashrut sticker in a window

Chief Rabbinate Council disputes Tzohar kashrut approval hours after authorization

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'


The scandal-ridden chief rabbinate must be restructured

Failure by Orthodox leaders and organizations to stand up and be counted on this will have catastrophic repercussions on the Jewish values that should represent the foundation of the nation.

The rabbis of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate

Chief Rabbi Lau criticizes Edelstein, Herzog over letter on conversion furore

The decision generated international headlines as Lookstein has also converted Ivanka Trump, daughter of US presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Chief rabbi David Lau

It’s time for a new rabbinate

The Israeli Chief Rabbinate took Philadelphia cream cheese off the shelves, and now they’re trying to cancel Rabbi Lookstein and the Jews living around the world who were converted by him.

The rabbis of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate

Allegations of ‘cronyism’ in Bayit Yehudi over rabbinical appointment process

Bayit Yehudi MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli is strongly lobbying for a candidate who is the brother of her parliamentary aide.

The nine members of the Appointments Committee for Rabbinical Judges convenes in Jerusalem

Police find evidence of systematic falsifications by Haifa Rabbinate

The police said on Wednesday that it had investigated two Haifa Rabbinate employees, one of them a senior figure, on suspicion of fraud and breach of trust.

Aerial view of Haifa

Convert still Jewish says Supreme Rabbinical Court

A woman whose conversion was invalidated by the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court 30 years after she converted had her appeal on the ruling upheld today by the Supreme Rabbinical Court.

THE JERUSALEM conversion office of the Chief Rabbinate – once the majority of Israeli citizens no longer connect to the Jewish nature of Israel, we will be left with a soulless country that is constantly fighting for its very existence.

Analysis: Unyielding religious establishment threatens to be its own undoing

Slowly but surely, the conflict between democratic rights, and the legally enshrined monopoly of one Jewish denomination over religious life in Israel is being chipped away.

Chief rabbis of Jerusalem, Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Arye Stern

Conversion victory

We recommend that the present government maintain that policy of keeping the question of “Who is a Jew” out of the hands of a bunch of ultra-conservative, politically connected rabbis.

Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef at the Western Wall

Will Israel split from the Rabbinate? 75% of Israeli Jews want civil divorce

Overwhelming majority of non-haredi Jews support the move, both on the right and left of the political spectrum.

Divorce

Rabbinical court jails father for supporting son’s divorce refusal

Tel Aviv judges conclude wealthy parents are "active figures" in disabled wife’s "captivity."

Divorce