A new contract by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality detailing conditions to allow synagogues built on municipal land to continue to function, including a commitment to provide religious services without distinction of gender, is causing a political uproar.

“The synagogue shall provide religious services to all residents of the ___ neighborhood and its immediate surroundings, without distinction of origin or gender,” reads a copy of the contract provided to The Times of Israel by a municipality spokesperson.

According to their lawyer, several synagogues are worried that signing the document will expose them to the risk of being sued if they maintain the traditional Jewish prayer style, according to which men and women pray separately, often divided by a barrier known as a “mehitza,” and women are not counted for the 10-worshiper quorum.

Attorney David Shub spoke with The Times of Israel over the phone after the controversy was first reported in the Hebrew news outlet Ynet on Sunday morning.

“If a synagogue signs, tomorrow, someone could go to the High Court of Justice and sue them because they do not respect the contract,” he said, noting that he represents eight synagogues, three of which are already fighting an eviction order in court after they refused to sign (Havurat Yisrael on Bar Kochba Street, Antopol Martyrs Synagogue on Saadia Gaon Street and Chayei Shalom on Bilu Street).

Several spokespeople from the municipality described the case as a non-issue, reiterating that the city does not aim to interfere with how synagogues conduct their services.

The Orthodox group of Rosh Yehudi sets up a makeshift barrier to divide between male and female worshipers, among protests, during a public prayer on Dizengoff Square for Yom Kippur. September 24, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/ Flash 90)

“The synagogues that are currently in court are not refusing to sign because of this clause, but because of many other clauses that do not work out for them,” a spokesperson for the municipality said, adding that the two sides are negotiating over the disagreements. “They also mention this clause, but it is not the real issue.”

“The question of gender does not concern mehitzas, but rather cases in which, for example, someone says that a synagogue is only [open] to men,” she added. “No one is trying to impose secularism on synagogues. This clause has the simplest regulation, stating that centers devoted to public use will not discriminate against people. This means, for example, claiming that, because of their tradition, someone cannot enter. No one is saying that mehitzas are forbidden.”

Shub, however, said that once the ordinance is included in the contract, synagogues could still be sued by private citizens who view their customs as discriminatory, regardless of the municipality’s intentions.

According to the lawyer, over 100 synagogues built on land owned by the municipality could be affected. He said that in addition to the eight synagogues he already represents, he has had conversations about the issue with at least a dozen more.

“About a century ago, many synagogues were built in Tel Aviv,” Shub explained. “Sometimes the land was purchased by private [entities] and given to the city, and sometimes the land was allocated by the city to a group of worshipers for the purpose of building a synagogue. Their founders invested the equivalent of today’s millions of shekels to build large and beautiful synagogues.”

According to Shub, while the recent efforts by the municipality to draft formal agreements after decades of legal vacuum make sense, the document is problematic.

“The contract they sent is terrible, stating that the synagogues belong to the city, no rights for the owners, and the city even has the right to interfere with how prayers are conducted,” Shub said.

While the clause does not mention specific requirements stating that Orthodox traditions cannot be upheld, the synagogues fear that eventually it could come to that.

Growing tensions

In recent years, Tel Aviv has experienced growing tensions stemming from the conflict between its largely secular character and the needs of religious life.

Gender-segregated prayers in public spaces have been at the heart of the controversy.

In September 2023, verbal confrontations erupted between worshipers and protesters at a public Yom Kippur prayer in the central Dizengoff Square.

The gathering had become an annual event in recent years, aimed by Orthodox organizers to encourage non-praying Jews back to tradition. The organizers would set up the space, including a makeshift barrier to separate male and female worshipers.

The Orthodox group of Rosh Yehudi sets up a makeshift barrier to divide between male and female worshipers, amid protests, during a public prayer on Dizengoff Square for Yom Kippur. September 24, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90)

Responding to Sunday’s Ynet report, several members of the government harshly criticized the Tel Aviv municipality.

Mayor Ron Huldai responded to the report and the criticism, stating that the contract had already been updated to reflect the needs of the synagogues.

“There is no basis for the lies being spread online today about the municipality supposedly threatening synagogues in the city,” he wrote on X. “The clause in question — which was originally part of a standard municipal allocation contract for public buildings and sparked this controversy — was changed and properly regulated long ago with the city’s synagogue gabbaim [beadles], with understanding and cooperation from all parties.”

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai casts his ballot at a voting station on the morning of the Municipal Elections, in Tel Aviv, on February 27, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The original contract quoted by the Ynet report stated that services needed to be provided “without distinction of faith or gender,” which seemed to imply that also non-Jewish worshipers needed to be admitted to the synagogues.

In the updated version obtained by The Times of Israel, the word “faith” was replaced by the word “origin,” which commonly refers to the Jewish ethnic origin of a person.

However, the reference to gender remains.

“Huldai has chosen to adopt a progressive agenda and fight against Judaism,” Education Minister Yoav Kisch from Likud said in a statement. “The education system will work to strengthen Jewish and Zionist identity, despite the wrath of all the ‘Huldaists’ out there.”

“The Tel Aviv municipality has declared war on Judaism,” said National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party.

“I demand that the Tel Aviv municipality immediately halt this dangerous and despicable move,” he added. “We will not bow our heads, we will not remain silent, and we will not allow the Jewish state to be turned into a ‘state of all its citizens’ on the backs of our synagogues.”

Park HaMesila in South Tel Aviv, on a Shabbat afternoon on April 19, 2025. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

MK Gilad Kariv, a member of the opposition party The Democrats, defended Tel Aviv’s decision.

“Hundreds of Orthodox synagogues operate in Tel Aviv,” he wrote on X. “A large number of them are in public buildings. No one has ever forced a non-Orthodox style of prayer on them.”

He noted that synagogues, like any other non-profit organization in public property, are required to sign on allocation contracts that include general clauses about non-discrimination, saying that this happens in other cities as well.

“What is happening — and what should happen — is protection of local worshiper communities against takeovers by outside associations — Haredi and Hardali (ultra-Orthodox nationalist) — that try to dictate patterns of prayer and synagogue use, often against the will of neighborhood residents,” he added.