To get married in Israel, Dima Motel had to bring his family photo album and two of his ancestors’ birth certificates to a rabbinical court. Then an investigator quizzed his mother in Yiddish.

AG orders release of Conservative rabbi nabbed for holding unsanctioned weddings Protesting ‘I’m not a criminal,’ Haifa’s Dov Haiyun was brought in pre-dawn by cops; opposition denounces Orthodox grip ...

Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The Times of Israel nor its ...

In the late 1990s, a political leadership structure in Lakewood’s Orthodox population emerged with the formation of the Vaad, a group of about 11 rabbis, businessmen and government liaisons whose ...

JERUSALEM (RNS) With its department-store-sized windows, the Kolben Dance Company’s studio faces a busy downtown plaza, but few passers-by have ever glimpsed one of the troupe’s rehearsals inside. The ...

The Israeli Parliament on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a bill to recognize only Orthodox conversions performed here, dealing a blow to Reform and Conservative Jews hoping to win official ...

New Right party head Naftali Bennett said Tuesday that his party would condition its entry into any future coalition on appointing a figure from the religious Zionist community to the religious ...

A growing conflict inside the Russian Orthodox Church over the war in Ukraine could plunge Vladimir Putin into crisis. President Putin counts the Russian Orthodox faith as one of his country's ...

The new wave of Covid-19 has led to the death of Dmitry Smirnov, president of the Patriarchal Commission for family, motherhood and childhood. Another well-known Muscovite priest, the hieromonk Nikon, ...

Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem have clashed with police in protest at what they see as interference by the Israeli authorities in their community. Police said at least 28 people were arrested after ...

The rock hit Nili Philipp on the side of her helmet as she biked last year along the main road in this Jerusalem suburb. A few years earlier, the spitting had begun, as Philipp jogged on a road ...