Newsroom:
Religious Pluralism
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The Forward
September 15, 2022
Op-Ed by IRAC Director Orly Erez-LikhovskiLand allocation for a synagogue requires a congregation to go through a long and often frustrating process by the local municipality, a political body that in most cities in Israel includes Orthodox representatives who almost always oppose the allocation of lands and budgets to non-Orthodox congregations. In these cases, we, at the Israel Religious Action Center — the legal and public advocacy arm of the Israeli Reform movement — must go to court and demand that the municipality grant us our rights.
2022
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The Jerusalem Post
November 26, 2021The YOZMA Elementary School was the first State-recognized Reform public elementary Jewish day school in Israel (grades 1-6).
And another first for you: under your leadership, YOZMA was the first non-Orthodox congregation to have its building funded by the State. It was an 11-year legal battle that reached the Supreme Court. Any credits you want to share?
A: Isaac Herzog, the current president, was then Construction and Housing minister. He was very helpful in moving along our petition. In fact, President Herzog has honored us by accepting our invitation to address our 25th Anniversary Gala on January 6.
We are also indebted to The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) for their contribution to our victory.
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Haaretz
November 17, 2021Now the Israel Religious Action Center demands that the special points be returned to the support apportioned for 2021, and freeze requests for 2022 until a hearing on the matter is held. According to the Center’s director, Att. Orly Erez-Lachowski, “In April the High Court gave the Education Ministry a red card regarding the funding of Judaism studies in the general education system, ordering the support criteria to be reexamined to ensure that Judaism studies in the general education system are indeed taught pluralistically. It is regrettable that the ministry ignores the verdict and seeks to continue the conduct disallowed by the Court.”
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The Times of Israel
October 28, 2021Kislanski spoke to The Times of Israel from her office in Jerusalem — which, due to the temporary shuttering of part of the movement’s office space during COVID, she splits part time with Anat Hoffman, the head of Women of the Wall and the executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, the IMPJ’s legal and advocacy arm.
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The Jerusalem Post
August 1, 2021Lawyers for the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center argued in their High Court petition that Amar’s repeated vitriolic outbursts violate disciplinary codes and justify the submission of a disciplinary complaint against the rabbi under the terms of the Law for Jewish Religious Services of 1971.
“The justice minister and the attorney-general have demonstrated complete helplessness in the face of this illegitimate behavior by refraining from putting Rabbi Amar on disciplinary trial for these severe remarks,” the Reform movement said.
The organization said that the justice minister and attorney-general’s refusal to enforce disciplinary law for public officials against Amar was “extremely unreasonable,” amounted to a “dereliction of duty,” and eroded the deterrence of the possibility of disciplinary violations, and “even has the effect of giving a stamp of approval to his illegitimate statements.”
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Haaretz
July 28, 2021The petition was filed by the Israel Religious Action Center on behalf of the Reform movement in Israel, the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance and Women of the Wall. The petitioners said they had filed dozens of judicial complaints over five years about Amar’s offensive remarks, but to no avail. Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit are named as defendants in the case, along with Amar.
Amar, who has been in his current position since November 2019, was previously Israel's Sephardi chief rabbi for 10 years.
“Regretfully, the defendant exploits his unique and lofty position in order to target and incite against entire communities in Israeli society, among them the Reform community, Women of the Wall and the LGBTQ community, which he treats in a hurtful, degrading and humiliating way,” the petition said.
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Haaretz
April 12, 2021According to Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the social justice arm of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism: “For years various organizations have been trying to use Jewish studies in schools as a tool for religious coercion. This ruling is a major milestone in the struggle on behalf of teaching liberal, pluralistic and secular Judaism in state schools.”
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The Jewish News of Northern California
March 4, 2021“The ultra-Orthodox really do need an enemy, and they have made us the enemy for no good reason,” said Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, a Reform organization. “Every chip in the monopoly, they make a really big deal out of it.”
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The New York Times
March 1, 2021
2021
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The Jerusalem Post
October 27, 2020The head of the Civil Service was writing in response to a complaint filed by the Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform Movement in July following comments made by Yosef regarding state accreditation in Jewish law expertise for women.
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Haaretz
August 27, 2020Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall, maintains he didn’t know the rally would be of a political nature, but the organizers made their support for Leon and their opposition to his rival, Ofer Berkowitz, well known on ultra-Orthodox websites prior to the event. It took the Civil Service Commission over a year and a half to review the complaint, which was filed by the Israel Religious Action Center at the end of 2018, but the Religious Services Ministry now says it is not familiar with the matter.
In its complaint, the Religious Action Center wrote that in granting permission for the rally, “whose avowed purpose was to support a candidate for mayor and included a clear call to vote for that candidate, Rabbi Rabinowitz violated the law’s instruction.”
Attorneys Meital Arbel and Orly Erez-Likhovski of the action center say that 30 complaints filed in the past five years regarding political or racist statements or condemnations of LGBTQ people by rabbis are still awaiting a decision. “The attorney general needs to make it clear that the Civil Service will not tolerate racist and political conduct and that proceedings will be taken against anyone who makes such statements,” they said.
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The Forward
July 10, 2020 -
Haaretz
February 6, 2020According to attorneys Meital Arbel and Orly Erez-Likhovski of the Israel Religious Action Center, the High Court of Justice “has issued a ‘red card’ to increased religiosity. We are pleased that the court accepted our position that a situation in which most of the budgets for Jewish studies in the state [secular] system are given to Orthodox groups is intolerable.” The attorneys added that the court did not accept the “strange arguments of the state – as if there is no increased religiosity” in secular public schools and that “all the content studied is pluralistic.”
2020
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Haaretz
June 2, 2019“The sums of money are ridiculous, and the criteria for eligibility are way too strict,” said Orly Erez-Likhovski, director of the legal department at the Israel Religious Action Center, which is representing the movements in court. “It makes it very difficult for us to get excited about this.”
She said that Orthodox rabbis on the state payroll earn on average three times more than what the ministry was offering Reform and Conservative rabbis.
“This discrimination is enraging,” she said, “and we intend to fight on.”
Still, according to Erez-Likhovski, dozens of Reform and Conservative congregations around Israel were expected to apply for the funding.
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Haaretz
March 10, 2019She said it was “a miracle” there was no “major bloodshed” on Friday, although several individuals — including Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Israel Religious Action Center (the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in the country) — did suffer physical injuries.
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Haaretz
March 8, 2019Among those physically attacked at the Western Wall was Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Israel Religious Action Center (the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in the country).
Sattath told Haaretz that she left the prayer service to complain to police that many of the men who had come to support Women of the Wall were not provided with a proper prayer space next to them, as had been agreed in advance. “Then suddenly I was toppled to the ground, stepped on and scratched in the face by a bunch of young ultra-Orthodox men.”
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JTA
March 8, 2019Rabbi Noa Sattath, the director of the Israel Religious Action Center, the social justice arm of the Reform movement in Israel, was lightly injured in the scuffle.
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Ynet News
March 7, 2019“The Western Wall Rabbi is a public servant who is supposed to serve all worshipers, whatever their practice is,” said Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center.
“We refuse to give in to practices that silence women,” Hoffman said. “On International Women’s Day we will continue to struggle for women’s right to worship, and we won’t let Rabinovitch or any other extremist factors to determine the discourse in such an aggressive ugly manner,” Hoffman concluded.
2019
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Haaretz
August 26, 2018Representatives of the congregation had accused the municipality of religious discrimination, insisting that the project had been subjected to excessive red tape because it involved the Reform movement. The congregation was represented in its suit by the Israel Religious Action Center, the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in the country.
Responding to the ruling, Orly Erez-Likhovsky, director of the legal department at IRAC, said: “This should be a warning sign to all those local authorities that ignore their legal advisers for political reasons.”
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Haaretz
June 7, 2018In their petition – submitted by the Israel Religious Action Center, the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel – the non-Orthodox movements demanded that their rabbis in major Israeli towns and cities receive state-funded salaries and be paid the same as their Orthodox counterparts.
According to IRAC, 75 Reform and Conservative rabbis currently serve towns and cities around Israel.
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Haaretz
June 4, 2018Members of Kehilat Yonatan filed the suit through the Israel Religious Action Center, the movement’s local advocacy arm.
Hundreds of local residents attend its services during the Jewish holidays and, according to IRAC, thousands of Hod Hasharon residents participate in lectures and other activities organized by the congregation each year.
2018
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Haaretz
December 21, 2017“As coalition whip, Amsalem will have the power to either expedite or slow down legislation,” says Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Israel Religious Action Center, the Reform movement’s local advocacy arm.
“What we know about him is that he tends to resist any change in the status quo when it comes to religion and state matters,” she adds. “For us, that means we will have to be very vigilant in pushing back.”
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Haaretz
November 26, 2017Reform and Conservative institutions in Israel are funded through the Culture and Sports Ministry, while Orthodox institutions are funded through the Religious Services Ministry. The Israel Religious Action Center – the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel – is representing both non-Orthodox movements in the petition.
According to data they provided, the non-Orthodox movements currently oversee 94 congregations in 49 major Israeli towns and cities (37 Reform and 57 Conservative). A total of 55 non-Orthodox rabbis (33 Reform, 22 Conservative) are currently employed as congregational rabbis in Israeli cities, towns and regional councils.
The petition noted that despite numerous promises in recent years to amend the situation, “The state continues to discriminate against the Reform and Conservative communities in Israel, their congregations, their rabbis and the umbrella movements that represent them when it comes to financing the salaries of Reform and Conservative rabbis.”
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Haaretz
November 17, 2017“While I was holding the Torah scroll, an ultra-Orthodox man came at me from behind and tried to grab it out of my hand,” Hoffman told Haaretz. “I shouted for help, and some of my colleagues came and were able to pull him off me.”
Hoffman said she witnessed a security guard threaten to spray Jacobs with mace if he proceeded ahead with his Torah scroll. “He held the bottle 10 centimeters from Rick’s nose,” she recounted.
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JewishPress.com
November 2, 2017All of which was not nearly enough for Reform clergy Noa Sattath, Director of the Israel Religious Action Center, which is the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel. “We in the Reform movement have taken a decision to stop meeting with the prime minister – and this is unprecedented – as well as with our friend [Minister in the prime minister’s office responsible for strategic cooperation] Tzachi Hanegbi, whom we consider to be a true friend, because we want the government to stop misrepresenting these meetings as attempts to resolve this crisis,” she announced.
“The government is trying to buy time, and we’re not going to allow that to happen anymore,” Sattath claimed. “If it doesn’t think there’s a solution to this, then let it say that.”
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JTA
November 2, 2017“We in the Reform movement have taken a decision to stop meeting with the prime minister – and this is unprecedented – as well as with our friend Tzachi Hanegbi, whom we consider to be a true friend, because we want the government to stop misrepresenting these meetings as attempts to resolve this crisis,” said Rabbi Noa Sattath, the director of the Israel Religious Action Center, the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel, according to Haaretz.
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The Jerusalem Post
November 1, 2017Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Reform movement’s legal arm in Israel, the Israel Religious Action Center, said Malkieli’s comments were “part of an ongoing campaign of incitement against the Reform and Conservative movements trying to denigrate and delegitimize us.”
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Haaretz
November 1, 2017“We in the Reform movement have taken a decision to stop meeting with the prime minister – and this is unprecedented – as well as with our friend Tzachi Hanegbi, whom we consider to be a true friend, because we want the government to stop misrepresenting these meetings as attempts to resolve this crisis,” said Rabbi Noa Sattath, the director of the Israel Religious Action Center, the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel.
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The Times of Israel
September 19, 2017Upon hearing the state’s response Tuesday, attorney Orly Erez-Likhovski, IRAC’s legal department director at the Israel Religious Action Center, who is representing the majority of the petitioners, said that in deciding not to renew governmental discussion over the Western Wall the prime minister is “continuing his unfriendly and contemptuous behavior toward Reform and Conservative Judaism and the Women of the Wall.”
According to Erez-Likhovski, the prime minister is “denying the state’s duty to allow an egalitarian and respectful prayer for all Jews, their streams and outlooks.”
“We will return to the Supreme Court and demand that the judges obligate the government to respect the right of millions of Jews in Israel and around the world to equality, dignity and freedom of religion on the most sacred site of the Jewish people,” said Erez-Likhovski.
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Haaretz
September 6, 2017On November 24, 2016, according to the indictment, the defendant issued threatening letters, all identical in content, to three prominent figures in the Reform movement: Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational arm of the movement in North America; Kariv, executive director of the movement in Israel; and Hoffman, chair of Women of the Wall, the multi-denominational feminist prayer group, who also heads the Israel Religious Action Center, the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel
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Newsweek
September 6, 2017Amar’s comments usually spur a spate of criticism from the groups he attacks and other leaders and politicians. Last year, Oded Fried, formerly the head of the Israeli National LGBT Task Force, said Amar “should keep his darm opinions to himself rather than lend a hand to incitement against the LGBT community,” while Israel Religious Action Center Director Rabbi Noa Sattath, said, “His comments, which are nothing more than baseless hatred peppered with ignorance, harm Israelis and Jews who pay his state salary.”
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Haaretz
September 5, 2017On November 24, 2016, according to the indictment, the defendant issued threatening letters, all identical in content, to three prominent figures in the Reform movement: Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational arm of the movement in North America; Rabbi Gilad Kariv, executive director of the movement in Israel; and Anat Hoffman, chair of Women of the Wall, the multi-denominational feminist prayer group, who also heads the Israel Religious Action Center, the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel.
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Jewish Standard
September 5, 2017The letters were addressed to Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism; Rabbi Gilad Kariv, executive director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism; and Anat Hoffman, chair of Women of the Wall and the head of the Israel Religious Action Center, the advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel. The threats came days after a protest for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall led by the Reform leaders.
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Arab News
September 1, 2017The Israel Religious Action Center, representing the reform movement, said the judges sent the government an unequivocal message about the Orthodox monopoly on religious practice at the wall, known in Hebrew as the kotel.
“The court spoke loud and clear stating that the current state of affairs in the kotel is discriminatory and can’t continue,” the center said in a statement.
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Middle East Eye
August 27, 2017Western Wall security did not say what they were looking for, according to the Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform Movement.
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JTA
August 25, 2017The Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform movement said Wednesday that it would submit formal complaints about the body searches on the students.
Western Wall security did not say what they were looking for, according to the Israel Religious Action Center. Western Wall officials in the past have detained women and searched for Torah scrolls and other religious items they consider inappropriate for women to bring to the wall.
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Jewish Journal
August 24, 2017Western Wall security did not say what they were looking for, according to the Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform movement, or IRAC. Western Wall officials in the past have detained women and searched for Torah scrolls and other religious items they consider inappropriate for women to bring to the wall.
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The Times of Israel
August 23, 2017The Israel Religious Action Center, which serves as the legal arm of the Reform Movement in Israel, said the four students of Hebrew Union College were delayed and questioned by guards, then were asked to lift up their shirts and skirts. “Four female rabbinical students strip searched while trying to enter the Western Wall Complex,” it declared in a press release.
The director of the IRAC said the searches were “a new low” for the Western Wall rabbinate, which is strongly opposed to the Women of the Wall.
“This is a new low for the Rabbi of the Kotel trying to intimidate, humiliate, and exclude liberal women trying to pray at the Western Wall. Despite today’s events these four brave Jewish leaders will continue to love Israel, the Wall, and justice,” Rabbi Noa Sattath said in a statement, using the Hebrew term for the Western Wall.
“Today we are submitting formal letters of complaint to the Attorney General and the Prime Minister’s office demanding they act to address the events of this morning,” she added.
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JTA
August 23, 2017The four said they were questioned, pulled aside into a private room and asked to lift their shirts and skirts. The Western Wall security did not say what they were looking for, according to the Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform movement, or IRAC. Western Wall officials in the past have detained women and searched for Torah scrolls and other religious items they consider inappropriate for women to bring to the wall.
The IRAC said it will submit formal complaints about the body searches on the students.
“This is a new low for the Rabbi of the Kotel trying to intimidate, humiliate, and exclude liberal women trying to pray at the Western Wall,” Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Israel Religious Action Center, said in a statement.
He added: “The Government knows that the only way forward is to implement the Kotel compromise that we all agreed to.”
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Jewish News Syndicate
July 31, 2017Anat Hoffman, director of both the Women of the Wall prayer rights group and the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center, published a video in early July claiming the Ezrat Yisrael facility is “a second-rate platform for second-rate Jews.”
In the video, which was subsidized by the Reform movement’s Israeli operations, Hoffman appears in a small area of the Ezrat Yisrael section, which was specifically designed so that worshippers can touch the Western Wall without harming an archaeological site beneath the pavilion. The video doesn’t show a full view of the Ezrat Yisrael section, which has sufficient space for dozens of worshippers.
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Haaretz
July 17, 2017Orly Erez-Likhovsky, the attorney from the Israel Religious Action Center who represented the petitioners, said: “We insist on what we petitioned for — full implementation of the agreement, or an egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall Plaza, where Women of the Wall can pray according to their custom.”
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Arutz 7
July 16, 2017Anat Hoffman, Director of Women of the Wall and the Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform movement, filmed a video on July 4 decrying Ezrat Yisrael as "a second-rate platform for second-rate Jews." During the video, funded by the Reform movement in Israel, she stands only in a small section designed for people to approach and touch the Wall itself without disturbing the archaeological site beneath, while never showing the full expanse of Ezrat Yisrael.
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Haaretz
July 13, 2017Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Israel Religious Action Center, which is coordinating the campaign, said it is funded by both Jewish federations in North America and by private donors. “I think we will eventually raise hundreds of thousands of dollars,” she told Haaretz, “because Jews in America are determined to make an impact and they see this as a rallying call and part of their struggle for the soul of the State of Israel.”
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Haaretz
June 27, 2017The government on Tuesday asked to have the deadline extended until July 27. The Israel Religious Action Center, which is representing the petitioners, said that it objects to any further extensions. “We stand by what we requested in our petition – the establishment of a permanent egalitarian space at the Western Wall site,” said Orly Erez Likhovsky, the attorney from IRAC handling the case. She said that IRAC had requested that the court set a date very soon for a hearing and that it instruct the state to present its response two weeks beforehand.
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Haaretz
June 15, 2017Several months ago, the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel filed a petition in the Supreme Court protesting the fact that the administration, despite its broad mandate, operates almost exclusively through Orthodox organizations and institutions. In the petition, filed on behalf of the movements by the Israel Religious Action Center, the plaintiffs noted that all their attempts to meet with the directors and receive clarifications had been ignored.