Israel Drops Satirical Sketches From Bible Curriculum Over Conservative Pressure

Ultra-Orthodox, right-wing politicians slam public broadcaster's TV show poking fun at historical, biblical events for 'mocking everything that's holy'

Opinion Israel Is in a Crisis, but Stop the Talk About Our Destruction

The Pagan Gods That Still Exist in the Holy Land's City Names

Conquerors came and went, but cities all over Israel and the region, not least Jericho and Jerusalem, retained identification with ancient deities

Israeli Man Charged With Arson Attacks on Jewish Religious Institutions

Zion Cohen, 68, is accused of torching six institutions, including the Tel Aviv rabbinical court, in a bid to separate religion and state in Israel

DNA Unlocks the Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Is every word in the Bible holy? When did prayers replace sacrificial offerings? The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of 25,000 fragments, but no one knows how to put them together. A new study suggests a way to solve that puzzle, which sheds new light on life in this land 2,000 years ago

LISTEN: High Priests, Holy Smoke and Cannabis in the Temple

Ancient Israelites used hash in religious ceremonies - and may even have done so in Jerusalem's Temple. PLUS: Why even archaeology is political in Israel. LISTEN FREE

Is the Ancient Karaite Jewish Community About to Disappear?

A visit to the last two predominantly Karaite communities left in the world

WATCH 'Jewish Illiteracy' Is the Biggest Threat to Diaspora Jews, U.S. Ambassador Friedman Says

Speaking at Haaretz's Judaism Conference, Trump's ambassador to Israel says lack of 'fluency' in Judaism is the 'greatest threat of all' ■ Isaac Herzog says Jewish Agency has handed out $6M in loans to Jewish communities, says 'no doubt' coronavirus will lead to aliyah uptick ■ Watch

When Jews Become anti-Semites: Why Reading Sartre in 2020 Is More Relevant Than Ever

The publication in Israel of a new translation of Jean-Paul Sartre's important essay on anti-Semitism reminds us that it isn’t the Jew - but rather the human being - who is the victim of anti-Semitism

Israel to Compensate Ethiopian Rabbis for Decades of Discriminatory Funding

Spiritual leaders of the Jewish Ethiopian community were denied equal funding by local religious councils, and have been fighting in court since 1992

Underground Economy: Israel's Burial Societies Exploit Diaspora Jews

Israeli cemetery operators charge exorbitant prices in violation of the law, flout rules and crowd graves into any available space. Regulation is spotty

How Jewish Mystics Sought to Vanquish Hitler – and the Coronavirus

Stopping the Nazis with the aid of magic and fighting the coronavirus with blasts of the shofar? Neither surprise Yuval Harari, a scholar of Jewish magic and mysticism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Ritual Baths in Israel Open During Coronavirus Crisis Despite Hygiene Shortfalls

'The risk of infection with the coronavirus is clear,' one expert says. 'If the chlorine level or acidity level is off, the danger is there'

Funerals on Zoom: How Israelis Grieve in the Time of Coronavirus

The need for social distancing is interfering with mourning, too, but as some people struggle without hugs, others find positive aspects to virtual final farewells

Rome’s Chief Rabbi Is Also a Doctor – and Says Coronavirus May Also Be an Opportunity

Riccardo Di Segni explains why he imposed coronavirus restrictions on his synagogue before it was required: 'Jewish life is based on companionship – we eat, drink, pray and study together. This has all stopped'

Protective of Religious Beards, Israel to Produce Fitted Face Masks During Coronavirus Crisis

Many of the country's Jews and Muslims, and some Christian clergymen, wear beards as a mark of faith

Coronavirus Cases Traced Back to Synagogues, but Israel Won't Enforce Regulations

A police document obtained by Haaretz shows synagogues effectively excluded from 10-person cap on public gatherings, despite over a third of latest confirmed patients visiting houses of worship in the days preceding their diagnosis

Israel Suddenly Discovers Imported Coca-Cola Isn’t Kosher

Products imported from Eastern Europe are sold for much less than the local version, but Israeli bottler denies any role in decision

In First, Israel Authorizes Chief Rabbinate to Indict Companies for Kashrut Fraud

Justice Ministry now allows the rabbinate to take criminal action against entities that break laws associated with it

'My Family Survived the Holocaust by Trading Their Rembrandt for Exit Visas'

This week at the Tel Aviv airport: An Israeli who spent years being 'very busy being gay' and is now focusing on what Judaism means to him, and a French expat who loves Paris but feels at home in Jerusalem

Rightist Zealots Have an Unlikely Partner in the War on Secularism

The multiculturalist left in Israel and elsewhere has become so extremist in its embrace of groups that reject democracy that it has turned into the useful idiot of rightist zealots that advocate the supremacy of certain religious and ethnic communities, and undermine the legitimacy of pluralism

You May Not See It, but ultra-Orthodox Women Are Angry

Four types of physical and invisible partitions erase and humiliate ultra-Orthodox women, but it's all women who suffer

Decades After Landmark Ruling, Israel's Chief Rabbinate Recognizes Ethiopian Jewish Community

In the early 1970s, then-Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef recognized Ethiopian Jews, yet many still encountered difficulty being recognized by the rabbinical system

LISTEN: Hijacking the Holocaust for Putin, Politics and Power

On the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of Auschwitz, world leaders descend on Jerusalem for a controversial Holocaust conference. Russia's Putin will be there, but Poland is staying away. LISTEN FREE

Opinion Fascism Just Isn't Fun Enough for Israelis

There's no problem for Israel to be Jewish and democratic simultaneously, so long as the two terms remain empty of content

Opinion Needed in Israel: CTRL-ALT-DELETE

Opinion Israeli Liberals, Start Listening to Religious Feminists

Most State-funded Hannukah Shows Had Male-only Casts

Of 34 performances that included female performers this holiday season in Israel, nearly half were directed at female-only audiences

2010-2019 The Decade Israel’s Reform and Conservative Jews Fought an Uphill Battle

The non-Orthodox movements have experienced impressive growth in their number of congregations since 2010. However, the Chief Rabbinate’s grip on matters of religion and state is proving hard to loosen | 2010-2019 roundup: Part 2