Chief Rabbinate
Israeli cabinet allows wider group of Orthodox rabbis to perform conversions
By Michele Chabin — November 3, 2014
JERUSALEM (RNS) The resolution should enable many of the 364,000 Israelis who are not Jewish to find Orthodox rabbis more welcoming than the 33 rabbis picked by the rabbinate to head conversion courts.
Israeli rabbis say accused rabbi’s conversions are kosher
By Michele Chabin — October 21, 2014
JERUSALEM (RNS) Because Jewish law requires witnesses to conversions to be above reproach, some have questioned whether the conversions that accused Rabbi Barry Freundel oversaw were illegitimate.
In Israel, biblical land-use laws call for creative workarounds
By Michele Chabin — September 30, 2014
JERUSALEM (RNS) The sabbatical-year prohibitions include sowing, planting, pruning, reaping, harvesting and improving the land. But many Jews have found loopholes and workarounds.
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate: Give up acting or we’ll deny your conversion
By Michele Chabin — March 20, 2014
JERUSALEM (RNS) The Chief Rabbinate, which has sole authority to determine who is and isn’t Jewish in Israel, is refusing to allow an actress to convert to Judaism unless she gives up her acting career.
Jews challenge worship rules at holiest of Jerusalem sites
By Neri Zilber — November 19, 2013
JERUSALEM (RNS) Known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Haram As-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), the most sensitive site in this most sensitive of cities is buffeted by a growing chorus of Israelis demanding their government allow Jewish worshippers access to the site, and thereby reverse decades of political and religious precedent.
Jerusalem restaurants sue over rabbis’ kosher certification rules
By Michele Chabin — December 5, 2012
JERUSALEM (RNS) Five Jerusalem eateries have filed suit against the city’s local Chief Rabbinate, saying kosher certification rules are expensive, unwieldy and inconsistent. By Michele Chabin.
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