Originally posted in Haaretz HERE Israel is at risk today less from the Palestinians than from the ominous and intensifying war of the Jews over pluralism, freedom of religion and religious extremism. In the last six months, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties have gone on an extremist rampage. They have infuriated Diaspora Jews in two ways: First, by …
Tag Archives: Mikvaot
Updates on the Kotel agreement and the Supreme Court’s ruling on access to Israel’s public mikva’ot
Since last week’s bulletin, there have been a number of developments in the ultra-Orthodox political and rabbinical leadership’s battle against the implementation of the Kotel agreement, as well as their battle against the Supreme Court’s ruling to make Israel’s public mikva’ot available for non-Orthodox conversion ceremonies. These developments reflect, in essence, an escalation in anti-Reform …
Israel – pushed towards theocracy
Contrasting visions for the State of Israel on matters of religion and state Minister Rabbi Litzman: “Netanyahu either loves the Reform Jews of the Diaspora, or the Haredim of Israel; it’s either-or. There are no two ways about it… The Supreme Court is destroying everything good related to religion & state, and… the only way …
Public opinion poll: only 63% of Israelis would abide by civil court rulings over religious edicts
“In a situation when Jewish religious edicts were in conflict with civil court rulings, which would you follow?” Two weeks ago, the RRFEI bulletin [link] included an analysis of the Supreme Court landmark ruling on access for non-Orthodox converts to public mikva’ot, demonstrating that there is a lot more to this than first met the …
The right of Jews to control our own religious lives
The Chief Rabbinate under Rabbi David Lau has instructed all the public mikvahs in Israel to not permit any conversions from any movement [link in Hebrew], and in that manner to prevent Reform conversions to Judaism. This in the aftermath of the Israeli Supreme Court decision two weeks ago permitting conversions in public mikvahs by …
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The Supreme Court landmark ruling to allow non-Orthodox converts access to all Mikva’ot in Israel – There is more to it than you may think by Rabbi Uri Regev
You may download my highlighted version of the Supreme Court ruling here. This unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court is an important addition to the chain of rulings that uphold the principles of religious freedom & equality. Its importance is not only to the matter at hand (access to the public mikva’ot for the purpose …