The Declaration of Independence, Israel’s founding document, states that the country is a “Jewish state.” This is not merely a description of a demographic reality, but a fundamental assertion of identity: a state which expresses the unique characteristics of the Jewish people. Indeed, a Jewish demographic majority exists in both Brooklyn and Beverly Hills, but the Jews in those cities…

Judaism and Islam are sister religions with many similarities. Nevertheless, the prevailing belief among members of both faiths is that an abyss separates them, and politically, they view one another as a threat. Yet the overlaps between the religions, coupled with the positive attitudes toward religion in general on both sides, can be transformed into a bridge. Jewish familiarity with…

The past year has brought into even greater focus the disputes that bitterly divide the Israeli public on questions of religion and state. There were dramatic events related to all major issues, some of which threatened, and continue to threaten, the government coalition, and all of which threatened the integrity of Israeli society and the Jewish People as a whole.…

A Jew who lives in Israel and lets Yom Kippur go by like just another ordinary day is missing something very significant. A country that comes to a standstill for one day but doesn’t derive anything significant out of it misses out. On a personal level, Yom Kippur, in the simplest sense, invites introspection. On a national level, it provides…

This article was originally published by the New York Times The former C.I.A. officer Valerie Plame Wilson made news with her Twitter account last week when, on the first day of Rosh Hashana, she shared an article that said, “America’s Jews are driving America’s wars: Shouldn’t they recuse themselves when dealing with the Middle East?” The article, which appeared on…

Earlier this week the High Court of Justice ended the Chief Rabbinate’s kashrut monopoly. Thus one era in kashrut services ends and a new one begins – in which the kashrut industry will operate freely, without supervision. The court’s decision was about kashrut, but its significance is much broader. The court’s ruling weakens the Chief Rabbinate, and brings the State of Israel…

Annual Assessment 2017 5777 PROJECT HEAD Dr. Shlomo Fischer CONTRIBUTORS Avinoam Bar-Yosef, Chaya Ekstein, Dan Feferman, Matthew Gerson Avi Gil, Inbal Hakman, Yossi Chen, Michael Herzog, Dov Maimon, Gitit Paz-Levi, Steven Popper, Uzi Rebhun, Shmuel Rosner, John Ruskay, Noah Slepkov, Shalom Salomon Wald EDITORS Barry Geltman Rami Tal Download the PDF Version:

Relations between the Jewish religion and the State of Israel began to take form even before the state was founded. Since then, and over the past 70 years, it has been customary to speak about a “status quo” on matters of religion and state. Politicians, the courts, the media and the wider public regularly refer to this status quo. But…

In this document, the future prime minister promised that in the future Jewish state, Shabbat would be the statutory day off for Jews; that all official kitchens would observe kashrut; that marriage and divorce would be conducted according to religious law; and that the educational institutions of the various religious streams would be allowed autonomy beyond the definition of a…