The merger between the Jewish Home party and Otzma LeYisrael (“Strength for Israel” – a far-right political party) marks the end of an era. Since the founding of the State of Israel, the prominent Religious-Zionist parties have played a central role – yet they have now joined forces with the dangerous fringes on the extreme right.  As a result Religious-Zionism has…

Would you let one soccer team decide for its opponent – which players can take the field, in an upcoming match? The very question is absurd, because the conflict of interest reeks to high heaven. But this is precisely the situation of our Central Elections Committee (CEC), which rules on the disqualification of Knesset candidates and lists. Its members represent…

The following is an op-ed originally published by the Jerusalem Post A recent report from the Religious Affairs Ministry, which oversees the Chief Rabbinate, points to a significant drop in Jewish Israeli couples marrying through their auspices, the only legal option for Israeli Jews. The report notes a 6.2% decrease in rabbinate marriages in 2018, and a similar trend from 2017 to…

Israel is about to enter a hundred days of media-fueled madness, running through Election Day. The political roller-coaster is gunning its motor before taking Israelis on a wild ride full of surprises, leading up to the election of the national engine-driver. Before we get carried away by the colorful details of the plot however, we should turn our gaze away…

For an Israeli like me, the recent visit to Israel of 450 members of the Park Avenue Synagogue is very encouraging.

The Hebrew University is weighing the idea of changing the language of instruction in some of its degree programs from Hebrew to English. This could be the first step towards making English the language of instruction for undergraduate degrees as well, first in the natural sciences and later in the humanities and social sciences. A decision by the Hebrew University…

The leaks from the police investigation, if corroborated, point to the sabotage of a critical national institution. If the judicial selection process proves to be infected by corrupt deals, and especially if the phenomenon turns out to be widespread, the possibility to rely on clear rules of the game and decision-making process in the conduct of our national debates will…

Israel is almost the only Western country that formally and institutionally provides its citizens with a long series of religious services, including kashrut supervision, ritual baths, burial, subsidies for Torah-based culture, spiritual counseling by local rabbis, religious marriage and divorce, conversion, and more. In all these domains, the State provides the funding and at the same time sets the standards…

If in the past, we tended to speak about tensions in Israeli society in terms of Arabs and Jews, religious and secular, or Right and Left, the findings of the Israel Democracy Institute’s 2018 Israeli Democracy Index, released last week reveal a major new split: the split over Israeli democracy. In today’s Israel, the fundamental question that defines the state—what…