Yedidia Z. Stern, at The Blogs

Sep 25, 2022, 4:39 PM

Rosh Hashanah 'foods' for a sweet new year: honey, apples, and pomegranate. (Liron Almog/Flash90)

This season of Jewish holidays goes a long way to preserve our Jewish identity, protecting us from the pervasive divisiveness and assimilation in Israeli society

Jan 5, 2022, 3:43 PM

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The Haredi leadership: Crime and its punishment

'We believe victims' fliers placed on billboards of a Haredi neighborhood on December 31, 2021. (Courtesy)

The ultra-Orthodox self-segregate from Israeli society, but the Walder affair is revealing major cracks in the 'wall of holiness.' A day of reckoning is coming

Sep 1, 2021, 3:48 PM

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The (non-)draft law for Haredim

Ultra-Orthodox men walk outside the IDF recruitment office in Jerusalem, on December 5, 2019. (Olivier FitoussiFlash90)

Lowering the draft age for the ultra-Orthodox to let them leave the army at the usual age sounds like a good idea, but it might just bring down this people's army

Aug 8, 2021, 3:50 PM

Artem – brother or other?

Artem Dolgopyat of Israel celebrates after winning the gold medal on the floor exercise in the artistic gymnastics men's final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, on August 1, 2021, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/ Natacha Pisarenko)

Israel must find a way to allow marriage for all and the best option is to set up a civil union track that doesn't undercut the Rabbinate's halachic authority

Jul 19, 2021, 2:06 PM

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High Court gender segregation ruling provides for ‘A Room of Their Own’

Illustrative: Ultra-Orthodox young women who are part of the Adva program that aims to train them with skills for the high-tech sector. (Courtesy)

In agreeing to limited separation in academia, the Court rejected the extreme positions of both the Haredim and those who oppose them

Jun 6, 2021, 3:31 PM

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American Jews, how ‘Jewish’ are you?

Jewish pride has replaced the humiliated Jew of history, but where Israelis are entrenched in the trappings of Jewish identity, American Jews must choose

Oct 30, 2020, 1:37 AM

Yitzhak’s blood cries out to us from the ground

Twenty-five years have passed since Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered. Today, half of all Israelis cannot remember that terrible day. But the other half, those over age 30, certainly cannot forget it. But is the memory of that...

Oct 9, 2020, 9:24 AM

Cruel calculations

The behavior of at least some of the ultra-Orthodox in recent weeks makes absolutely no sense. What was the Belzer rabbi thinking when he gathered thousands of his followers for a wedding, in blatant violation of the rules, and at...

May 22, 2020, 7:21 PM

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The rule of law over the ruler

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to deliver a statement regarding his intention to file a request to the Knesset for immunity from prosecution, in Jerusalem on January 1, 2020. (Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP)

It's one of democracy's substantial achievements: just like every citizen, Netanyahu will stand before 3 judges, whose task is to decide whether he is innocent or guilty

May 8, 2020, 7:03 PM

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Sanity prevails: 11 to 0

High Court voted unanimously - itself a breath of fresh air - and the public saw for themselves that there was no diabolical plot to undermine the separation of powers

About Me

Yedidia Stern is president of the Jewish People Policy Institute and a professor of law at Bar-Ilan University, who was previously a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.