Seth Farber, at The Blogs

May 22, 2024, 4:16 PM

Nepotism at work: The committee to appoint rabbinical judges

Illustrative: Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef meets with newly appointed Supreme Rabbinical Court judges in Jerusalem, July 13, 2016. (Yaacov Cohen/ Flash90/ File)

How can Israelis trust the courts they need for divorce and other legal matters, when they have become a job factory for the committee's relatives?

Mar 10, 2023, 1:26 PM

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The slippery slope toward a monolithic Judaism

United Torah Judaism's MK Moshe Gafni (R) and Religious Zionism leader MK Bezalel Smotrich meet at the Knesset, November 6, 2022. (handout photo, courtesy)

Aiming for 100+ changes to Israel's religion-and-state laws, the coalition endangers Judaism's inherent diversity

Mar 10, 2022, 11:43 AM

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It takes a village… and a Knesset

Jewish immigrants fleeing the war in Ukraine, arrive at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv on March 6, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/ FLASH90)

What kind of compassionate, democratic Jewish state welcomes tens of thousands of Ukrainians under the Law of Return -- and then denies their Jewishness?

Jan 16, 2022, 4:18 PM

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Where was the Chief Rabbinate? Definitely not in Colleyville

The Chief Rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef (L) and Rabbi David Lau (R) speaks during an event, on January 11, 2016. (Yaakov Coehn/Flash90)

While members of a Reform temple in the US were held hostage, apparently because they were Jews, the chief rabbi didn't see fit to offer a prayer for their safety

May 26, 2021, 3:05 PM

Crisis and Opportunity in the Israeli Rabbinate

In Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters, one representing danger and the other, opportunity. John F. Kennedy used this image during his presidential campaign in the 1960s, and though the assertion is probably not true in...

Oct 20, 2020, 11:24 AM

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‘Large Jewish weddings’ and the arrogance of political power

On Aryeh Deri's push to exempt weddings from pandemic restrictions because he, and he alone, understands Jewish values and traditions

May 7, 2020, 1:19 PM

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In Memoriam: Rabbi Nahum Rabinovitch

The religious Zionist luminary who championed conversion of Israeli children of Jewish heritage believed that every Jewish soul matters

Mar 19, 2020, 6:57 PM

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The Jewish ethos in the time of Corona

Illustrative. Students pray outside Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut, in Gush Etzion, on March 15, 2020, after it was closed as part of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)

The 'Corona Rabbis' focus on the challenge of minyan in a pandemic is legit, but it distracts from the needs of vulnerable people that the 'Corona Volunteers' address

Nov 28, 2018, 3:49 PM

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‘My rabbi didn’t make the Rabbinate’s list. Now what?’

Illustrative. Israel's chief rabbis convene an emergency meeting with religious Zionist rabbis, against a proposal to overhaul the conversion to Judaism system in the country on June 3, 2018. (Courtesy of the Chief Rabbinate/File)

The Chief Rabbinate’s 'whitelist' demonstrates its disdain for most Jews, and its departure from Judaism's love of the convert

Nov 14, 2018, 5:15 PM

Chief Rabbi Lau: Laying blame will get us nowhere

On October 23, Rabbi David Lau, Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, sent a letter to the Chief Rabbinate Council, the decision-making arm of the Chief Rabbinate, summarizing his five-year tenure as its head. In the letter, Rabbi Lau acknowledged that...

About Me

Rabbi Seth Farber, PhD, is Founder and Director of ITIM, an organization committed to making Israel’s religious establishment respectful of and responsive to the diverse Jewish needs of the Jewish people, and a Founder and Director of Giyur K'Halacha, Israel's largest non-governmental conversion court network. He is a recipient of the Nefesh B'Nefesh Bonei Zion Prize, and the Israel Ministry of Aliyah & Integration's Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Israeli Society.