Hod Hasharon ranked first in NGO Israel Hofsheet’s 2025 Municipal Freedom Index, overtaking last year’s winner Givatayim, in the eighth edition of the nationwide survey evaluating how much freedom Israel’s cities provide residents in areas under municipal control.
The report, released Tuesday, shows widening gaps between liberal and conservative municipalities, particularly around oversight of educational content, gender-segregated events, and support for pluralistic communities.
The index, which covers 40 cities and added five new entrants this year, measures municipal performance across 11 areas tied directly to daily life, also including religious budgets, support for non-Orthodox Jewish communities, civil burial, civil partnership registries, Shabbat commerce, public transportation on Shabbat, LGBTQ+ services, swimming pool segregation, and transparency. Each area reflects practical authority that local governments hold and the degree of freedom residents experience in their city.
Israel Hofsheet (Free Israel) emphasized that 2025 once again saw religion-and-state issues dominate public discourse despite the ongoing multifront war. Israelis stranded abroad during Iran’s attack struggled to return because flights would not operate on Shabbat, LGBTQ+ widowed spouses of fallen soldiers fought for civil recognition, and burial rights for people of different faiths resurfaced as a national pain point. Against this backdrop, the NGO argued that local authorities often became “one of the strongest lines of defense” for residents seeking liberal policies.
Hod Hasharon, led by Mayor Amir Kochavi, rose from second to first following major advances in school-content oversight, particularly the monitoring of external programs after the Education Ministry’s “Geffen” database revealed widespread use of ideological initiatives promoting anti-LGBTQ messaging, gender segregation, and discouraging women’s military service. The city also expanded support for non-Orthodox Jewish communities and scored near-perfectly on LGBTQ+ services, gender-segregation protections, and Shabbat-related freedom.
Givatayim, last year’s top city, slipped to second but remained strongly positioned. It continued to reduce the cost of religious services and to refuse funding for gender-segregated events, while maintaining broad support for LGBTQ+ residents. Its ability to provide accessible public information and transparency still requires improvement, the index shows.
Tel Aviv and Ramat Hasharon shared third place. Tel Aviv gained three index points and Ramat Hasharon climbed five spots after amending commerce bylaws around the BIG Glilot complex, strengthening ties to pluralistic Jewish organizations, and improving education oversight. Tel Aviv’s earlier civil partnership registry – once a model of municipal innovation – was halted this year, preventing it from achieving a higher ranking.
Ashkelon recorded the most dramatic upward move, rising seven places due to improved education oversight and growing religious pluralism, even as it regressed on gender-segregated events. Bat Yam and Petah Tikva saw the largest declines, both falling 11 places, after substantial rollbacks in parental notification on educational materials taught in schools, as well as the vetting of external school programs, leaving them far behind neighboring cities.
Netivot debuted in last place with just three points, one of the lowest scores ever recorded for a non-ultra-Orthodox (haredi) municipality. Despite having a low socioeconomic ranking, the city allocated 1.6% of its entire municipal budget to religious services, including funding ten commemorative events that serve only the Orthodox stream. It provided no support for non-Orthodox Jewish communities, offered no mechanisms to prevent gender segregation, and operated both of its municipal pools under fully segregated schedules with no mixed-swimming hours.
Religious pluralism, education, and gender segregation
Five cities appeared in the index for the first time: Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Motzkin, Karmiel, Pardes Hanna-Karkur, and Netivot. Of them, Kiryat Bialik performed the strongest, entering at ninth place with particularly high scores in education, LGBTQ+ services, and Shabbat transportation. Karmiel offers Shabbat transport to its BIG Center but spends at least 1.5% of its budget on religious services. Kiryat Motzkin also benefits from Shabbat public transportation but showed deep structural shortcomings in pluralistic support and in honoring its own stated prohibition on gender-segregated events. Pardes Hanna-Karkur, despite an influx of Tel Aviv residents, remains completely closed on Shabbat and did not perform strongly on religious pluralism.
Across the country, education oversight showed a clear split. Cities such as Hod Hasharon, Givatayim, Eilat, and Ashkelon improved transparency and parental notification on educational content. In Petah Tikva and Bat Yam, oversight and reporting have all but disappeared, while Ashdod, Dimona, Lod, Acre, Kiryat Gat, and Rehovot also raised concerns.
Gender-segregated events revealed widespread discrepancies: 14 cities – including Ashdod, Eilat, Holon, Kfar Saba, and Ra’anana – claimed none had occurred, but monitoring found otherwise. Only eight cities fully honored their stated commitments.
Religious budgets expanded sharply in conservative municipalities, with Netivot, Lod, and Herzliya marking some of the highest proportional expenditures. Subsidized segregated swimming rose nationwide, particularly in Herzliya and Lod. Tel Aviv continues to subsidize segregated hours; in one pool, only men received segregated times, effectively giving them access to all hours while women were entirely excluded.
Shabbat transportation remained unchanged this year. Even major secular cities such as Rishon Lezion and Bat Yam still offer no public transportation on Shabbat, meaning many residents continue to depend on private cars despite the widespread availability of regional “Na’im BaSofash” routes.
Uri Keidar, Israel Hofsheet’s executive director, said the findings show that in the face of “the most extreme and religious government Israel has ever known,” local leaders have increasingly become essential defenders of liberal democratic values. The index, he said, gives residents “a clear measuring stick” by which to assess their municipal leadership’s commitments to freedom and pluralism.