Steven Bayme

The author is director of the Contemporary Jewish Life Department at the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which established the Jewish Religious Equality Coalition (J-REC) to foster religious pluralism and equality within Israel on matters of personal status.

WORSHIPERS PRAY at the Western Wall in the capital during Hanukka last year.

Israel and American Jewry: Can the rift be healed?

The Chief Rabbinate has long enjoyed a monopoly over marriage between Jews.

JULY 16, 2017

Religious pluralism, Jewish peoplehood and the Chief Rabbinate

The very concept of common Jewish peoplehood is endangered when Jews from the Diaspora encounter an Israel that fails to recognize diverse expressions of Judaism and what it means to be a Jew.

NOVEMBER 29, 2015

Swearing in of David Lau, Yitzhak Yosef 370

Ending the Chief Rabbinate monopoly

Put simply, there is likely to be greater respect for, and expression of, Judaic tradition if there are no laws mandating it.

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

Whither the Chief Rabbinate?

The fundamental challenge therefore entails abolishing the coercive power of the Chief Rabbinate, most notably with respect to the crucial issues of personal status – marriage, divorce, conversion and burial.

DECEMBER 25, 2012