For the ultra-Orthodox, the very notion of a great rabbi making a mistake is unthinkable. What we’ve seen over the past month, is not about one rabbi getting it wrong. A long list of the leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis, in Israel and abroad, initially refused to comply with the government directive to shut down yeshivot, synagogues, and ritual baths. At a…

Israel in the midst of a crisis –unprecedented in its scale. Human life is in danger, and the economy faces huge challenges. All branches of government are focused on dealing with a first-ever situation. All this does not prevent some journalists and public figures from calling for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry the day after the corona.…

In the third round of Knesset elections, the party representing religious Zionism once again failed at the ballot box. Its opening position was promising: “Yamina” recruited a young, attractive and dynamic team of men and women, devoid of outside interests and with clear leadership potential, drawn from the various shades of religious Zionism. They enjoyed a one-time opportunity, albeit brief,…

What’s at stake in this election? Is there any point to making the effort to go out and vote for the third time within a year? With regard to a long series of issues, nothing will change as a result of which political bloc comes out on top. On issues of security — from Gaza to Iran — we will…

In recent weeks, we have repeatedly awoken to news of murderous antisemitic attacks in the United States. The extensive coverage of these attacks by the Israeli media gives the impression of Jewish unity and a sense of a common Jewish fate, but in reality it appears that many Israelis do not share this feeling. The Israel Democracy Institute’s 2019 Democracy…

Many months have passed since the Knesset has performed its primary duty – legislating on behalf of the public good. Instead, it has been fixated on itself. By means of the Central Elections Committee, some Knesset members are focused on the question of whether specific individuals and lists will be allowed to run in the next election. Sitting as the…

The U-turns performed by Rabbi Rafi Peretz after promising that “my words are written in stone” last week and the recent months, have once again proven that the involvement of rabbis in politics is bad for the rabbinate, bad for Judaism, and bad for politics. Rabbis are not necessarily any better or any worse than other politicians. But politicians who…

The abusive diatribe recently leveled by Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef against Israeli immigrants from the former Soviet Union is merely a symptom, not the problem itself. The real problem is that the Chief Rabbinate, headed by Rabbi Yosef together with his Ashkenazi counterpart Rabbi Lau, makes life difficult for this immigrant population on a daily basis, applying an extremely stringent…