This recent exchange, prompted by a new Israeli law that denies surrogacy rights to gay men, serves to illustrate the deepening divides within Orthodoxy. In Israel, where the ultra-Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate controls most aspects of Jewish religious life, these fault lines have become even more glaring.

Seth Farber, a Modern Orthodox rabbi and director of ITIM at the Knesset: The Jewish-Life Information Center Aviad Weizman. “There have always been divisions within Orthodoxy,” says Rabbi Seth Farber, the founder and director of ITIM, an organization that helps people deal with the Rabbinate and its bureaucracy. “But the playing field is changing, so there are many new issues to fight about.”