Newsroom:
Religious Freedom

  • Jewish Press of Tampa
    August 8, 2022

    Attorney Orly Erez-Likhovski, incoming director of the Israel Religious Action Center, described the women’s section as a “lawless pit devoid of any sort of rule.”

    “They see us as provocateurs,” she said, indicating toward the police officers lingering near the entrance to the women’s section, “not as citizens exercising their rights.”

    Anat Hoffman, Women of the Wall’s chair, protested that the police’s refusal to demand identification from any of the aggressors rendered any future complaint moot. “The cases are closed before they’re opened,” Erez-Likhovski said.

  • The Jerusalem Post
    July 30, 2022

    Attorney Orly Erez-Likhovski, director of the Israel Religious Action Center and Women of the Wall’s incoming chair, described the women’s section as a “lawless pit devoid of any sort of rule.”

    “They see us as provocateurs,” she said, indicating toward the police officers lingering near the entrance to the women’s section, “not as citizens exercising their rights.”

    Anat Hoffman, the organization’s current chair, protested that the police’s refusal to demand identification from any of the aggressors rendered any future complaint moot. “The cases are closed before they’re opened,” Erez-Likhovski said.

  • Religious News Service
    July 21, 2022

    Want to make a difference? Learn about the work of:

    Women of the Wall

    The Israel Religious Action Center

    HIDDUSH, which fights for religious freedom in Israel

2022

  • The Jerusalem Post
    December 18, 2021

    He challenged that in court with the assistance of the Israel Religious Action Center and his case was finally heard this past February. The verdict? Another delay. Though he had already undergone formal conversion in Uganda, the presiding judge advised him to convert again to ensure that his appeal would not be rejected on technical grounds.

  • The Jerusalem Post
    November 10, 2021

    In a media interview, Anna Kislanski, the Israeli Reform movement’s incoming CEO and Kariv’s replacement, shared that she uses an office combined with those of Women of the Wall’s chairwoman Anat Hoffman. This is, of course, not surprising if you keep in mind that Hoffman, in addition to her duties chairing Women of the Wall, also heads the Reform movement’s legal and advocacy arm – the Israel Religious Action Center.

  • France 24
    August 3, 2021

    Attorney Orly Erez-Likhovski of the Israel Religious Action Center told AFP that the current marriage law was "a grave infringement on the rights of Israelis".

    However, she said, under Israel's diverse coalition, which includes Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's religious Yamina party and the conservative Islamic Raam, "politically I'm not sure it's going to happen in the near future".

  • The Jerusalem Post
    June 21, 2021

    "The police are absolving themselves of their responsibility," Orly Erez-Likhovski, director of the Israel Religious Action Center said. She also accused Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, of supporting the violence.

  • The Jerusalem Post
    April 8, 2021

    However, explained Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, other Knesset members already have vowed to walk out if Kariv speaks and not count him in a minyan, which she called “just shocking.”

    Kariv will add a progressive voice during a time when other parties have introduced bills against the Reform movement in Israel, LGBT rights, affirmative action for women and the right to an abortion, said Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Israel Religious Action Center.

  • The Forward
    March 3, 2021

    Read Anat Hoffman’s op-ed on the recent Supreme Court ruling recognizing Reform and Conservative conversions performed in Israel.

2021

  • The Jerusalem Post
    August 20, 2020

    The municipality has launched an initiative to make certain official sites available for weddings of residents blocked from banquet halls due to coronavirus restrictions.

    Following a claim presented by the Israel Religious Action Center, the District Court has ruled that the city must extend this offer to all interested parties, including LGBTQ couples and others who cannot get married by the rabbinate. The municipality has confirmed its intention to fully honor the court decision.

  • Haaretz
    August 3, 2020

    The petitioners are being represented by the Israel Religious Action Center – the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel.

    In their suit, they demanded an injunction against the program until all couples, not only those marrying through the rabbinate, are deemed eligible to apply.

  • Haaretz
    May 4, 2020

    Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Israel Religious Action Center, the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel, particularly takes heart from the fact that both the justice and Diaspora affairs ministries will be handed over to Kahol Lavan.

    The Justice Ministry, she says, has the power to end gender exclusion in Israel, while the Diaspora Affairs Ministry controls large budgets that can be used, she hopes, to promote initiatives of a more pluralistic nature than in the past.

    “It helps having people who are sympathetic to our position – certainly much more so than they were in the past – in ministries like these,” Sattath says. At the same time, she does not expect any real progress in legislation, even after the six-month freeze ends, because under the coalition agreement, all subsequent legislation brought to the Knesset must be approved in advance by both Likud and Kahol Lavan. “So basically things will stay as they are,” she predicts.

    Any big revolutions, she adds, will have to wait for another government.

2020

  • The Washington Post
    March 27, 2019

    Israel does not have any option for civil marriage, explained one of the organizers of this wedding, Anat Hoffman, who served 14 years on Jerusalem’s City Council and now leads the Israel Religious Action Center, a Reform organization fighting for civil rights in Israel.

    Hoffman said polling shows that Israelis strongly desire an option for civil marriage, and she thinks that taking this fight to the United States will exert pressure on Israeli leaders. “I don’t know how any Jew can be asked to leave the table when Jewish values are discussed,” she said.

  • The Jerusalem Post
    March 21, 2019

    Israeli activist Anat Hoffman – executive director of Israel Religious Action Center and – contacted Rabbi Bruce Lustig, senior rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation, to help these three couples. The result: Three Weddings and a Statement, in which the three couples will be married in a Reform ceremony in the United States.

    Hoffman, director and co-founder of Women of the Wall, wanted a similar event set in the nation’s capital, “where legislation happens,” Millstone explained.

  • JTA
    March 15, 2019

    Each of the three couples to be married on March 26 at Washington Hebrew Congregation is unable to be married in Israel because of strictures imposed by the Orthodox-controlled Chief Rabbinate. The event is organized by the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements, in partnership with the Israel Religious Action Center.

  • The Jerusalem Post
    February 6, 2019

    Same-sex couples, interfaith couples, and those who want to perform a Reform or Conservative wedding do not have the opportunity to do so in the Jewish state. However, Israel does recognize these marriages if they are performed legally outside of the country. In protest of the Chief Rabbinate's control over marriage, three couples are teaming up with the Israel Religious Action Center to tie the knot on March 26, 2019, at 6:30 PM at Washington Hebrew Congregation.

    The three couples - one gay, one considered an "interfaith" marriage by the rabbinate, and one couple wanting to perform a Reform wedding ceremony - are joining forces with the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), an Israel-based civil rights organization that released a video on Monday inviting the Washington community to celebrate together with the couples.

2019

  • The New York Times
    December 8, 2017

  • The New York Times
    December 7, 2017

  • The Forward
    December 1, 2017

  • The New York Jewish Week
    November 28, 2017

    Komkov and Boldovskiy and two other couples are getting married in a triple ceremony — the first ever at Temple Emanu-El — officiated by Reform and Conservative rabbis, in an effort initiated by the Israel Religious Action Center. One couple, who are lesbians, would not be able to have a wedding recognized by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, and the other couple choose not to marry in Israel as they reject the Rabbinate’s control.

    “These three couples want to get married Jewishly with a rabbi of their choice, in an environment that is Jewish; they want to be recognized in Israel,” Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, told The Jewish Week.

    “If the Rabbanut thought that to deny us the Kotel deal limited our desire to fight their monopoly, they have made a mistake,” she said, referring to the Israeli government’s June decision to suspend an agreement with a coalition of liberal and Conservative organizations to expand and upgrade an egalitarian prayer space at the Wall.

    “Now North American Jews are more open to hearing how that monopoly affects life choices in Israel.

    “We say to you North Americans, this is your place to help us — for you in New York to make a statement that Israel is a joint project, the collective historical project of our time.”

    The officiating rabbis include Rabbi Davidson of Temple Emanu-El as well as Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl of Central Synagogue, Rabbi Peter J. Rubenstein of the 92nd Street Y, Rabbi Noa Sattah, director of the Israel Religious Action Center, and Conservative leaders Rabbi Rachel Ain of Sutton Place Synagogue and Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue. Hoffman will speak, and more than 30 other rabbis are expected to join for the final blessings.

  • Haaretz
    November 13, 2017

    The Israel Religious Action Center – a nonprofit group that fights racism in the country – recently sent the hostel a letter of complaint, accusing it of breaking the law for not accepting non-Jewish guests. It is illegal for businesses in Israel to discriminate on the basis of religion. Israel Free Spirit, a certified Birthright trip provider, advertises the Heritage House on its website as an option for participants seeking to extend their stay in Israel.

    The Israel Religious Action Center said that if it did not receive a quick response to its letter of complaint, it would sue the Heritage House for religious discrimination.

  • Religious News Service
    September 26, 2017

    Riki Shapira Rosenberg, the Israel Religious Action Center attorney who represented the two plaintiffs (both restaurant owners) in the kashrut case, hopes the victory will spur more competition and bring about significantly lower prices in the notoriously expensive kosher food industry.

    “Many more kashrut bodies, including some that are ultra-Orthodox but not affiliated with the rabbinate, will enter the market,” she said.

  • Ynet News
    September 16, 2017

    "The High Court of Justice's ruling is precedent-setting and means that businesses are finally permitted to present themselves as adhering to the rules of kashrut when they are supervised by an organization other than the Chief Rabbinate," said Riki Shapira Rosenberg, the lead attorney for the Israel Religious Action Center's (IRAC), who brought the petition on behalf of two Jerusalem restaurant owners demanding alternative Kashrut supervision.

    "This is an important step in achieving freedom of religion in Israel and recognizing the autonomy of every citizen to decide what is legitimate according to their own religious conscience."

  • Haaretz
    September 14, 2017

    Ricki Shapira Rosenberg, a lawyer for the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center, which supported the plaintiffs in the case, said the ruling advanced religious freedom and a “recognition of the autonomy of every citizen to decide what is kosher according to or her religious conscience.

    “The decision anchors in law the business freedom of food establishments in Israel and prevents the Chief Rabbinate from forcing them to accept supervision they don’t want,” Shapira Rosenberg said.

  • Globes
    September 11, 2017

    MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz), the Israel Religious Action Center, Israel Hofshit - Be Free Israel, Hiddush for Religious Freedom and Equality, and other petitioners filed a petition in July 2016 against Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz and others because of their refusal to operate public transportation on the Sabbath. The petition asked that the Ministry of Transport be ordered to conduct a comprehensive survey on the transportation needs of Israel's residents, after which a public transportation system would be established to operate on days of rest that would provide a fitting solution to the essential transportation needs of Israel's residents on a format adjusted to the day of rest.

    The petitioners asked that a public transportation system be operated on days of rest, based on "the principles of equality, dignity, freedom of movement, freedom from religion, and taking into account, social, environmental, and security consideration." The petitioners asked that the respondents be required to explain why public transportation should not be operated on an appropriate scale for routes serving passengers traveling to hospitals, border communities, and non-Jewish communities.

    After deliberating among themselves, the petitioners accepted the justices' suggestion that they withdraw the petition, while reserving their rights. "We intend to act through an operator, and ask that public transportation be operated on the Sabbath. We hope that the Ministry of Transport will consider this according to the law," said Israel Religious Action Center Legal Department director Advocate Orly Erez-Likhovski.

  • The Times of Israel
    September 11, 2017

    Despite the High Court’s dismissal of the petition, a lawyer representing Reform Judaism’s Israel Religious Action Center said the petitioners would file an official request for public transportation on Shabbat with the Transportation Ministry.

    “[We] need to hope that the Transportation Ministry will consider the needs of the sick, the elderly, those with disabilities and single-parent families in its decision whether to respond to the request,” Orly Erez-Likhovski was quoted by Channel 10 as saying.

    “We will continue to act to ensure their rights to freedom of movement, equality and respect for all residents of Israel,” she added.

    Erez-Likhovski also said the petitioners would be prepared to return to the courts if needed.

2017