Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein told the High Court of Justice that the state will provide equal funding to rabbis affiliated with the Reform and Conservative Movements, and they will be categorized as “non Orthodox rabbis”. The attorney general was responding to the High Court regarding a petition filed by the Reform Movement back in 2005.
The state’s recognition translates to the Ministry of Religious Services having to pay salaries for a limited number of non-Orthodox rabbis in official positions as well. Minister of Religious Services (Shas) Yaakov Margi has already announced he will resign before he complies with such a directive.
The terms of the agreement are the result of a settlement reached out of court. While the non-Orthodox rabbis designation is new, and there will be funding, the state halted short of recognizing the non-Orthodox rabbinates Baruch Hashem, with Weinstein explaining the state is willing to refer to them as “community leaders” but not rabbis and equals vis-à-vis their Orthodox counterpart.
The Reform Movement agreed to the deal which will result in state funding but via the Ministry of Sport & Culture as a cultural entity and not via the Religious Services Ministry. In addition, while the decision will be implemented for smaller communities, it is not valid regarding large cities, another move by the state to prevent total equal recognition for the non Orthodox streams of Jewry. The recognition is more a title of honor and a vehicle to provide funding, and the “community leaders” will not be recognized as halachic officials with authority equal to rabbonim serving around the country under civil service appointment. 15 such rabbis will be on the state roster as the new agreement is implemented.
The head of Israel’s Reform movement, Rabbi Gilad Kariv, said “the state’s decision to support the activities of Reform rabbis in regional councils, while clearly acknowledging their roles as rabbis, is an important breakthrough in the efforts to advance freedom of religion in Israel. This is the first, but significant, step toward comparing the status of all streams of Judaism in Israel and we hope the state will indeed ensure the court’s commitments are fully applied.”
The agreement is being praised by Meretz and other left-wing officials, who are well aware that while the victory is only partial and a far cry from their goal, the granting of legitimacy to the “community leaders” is the beginning of total acceptance of non Halachic persons who use the title rabbi. Frum parties are obviously less than pleased with the announced agreement which is being finalized to put it mildly, and they will study the ramifications and one may expect many responses.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
What about the clergy of other offshoots of Judaism such as Recontructionist and Humanistic? Anyu what about those that include Yoshka in their faith. Where does the governmnent draw the line?
Now, how can I recognize the state of Israel. Everyone should protest against this ruling.
“…the state will provide equal funding to rabbis affiliated with the Reform and Conservative Movements”…
“Movements” they ARE (like bowel movements) but “rabbis” they are NOT.
I once heard a Jewish comedienne named Judy (something) say had started her own religion.
She said she calls it “Judy-ism”.
The “movements” mentioned above are about as valid as her “religion”.
If Margi would resign rather than fund these “rabbis”, why did he take the job in the first place, since it already requires funding actual avodah zarah? The Ministry of Religious Affairs officially funds Xian churches which serve mamash AZ just like in Chazal’s day.
Further, under the principle of responsible government, all cabinet members are equally responsible for all the government’s actions, regardless of which ministry it falls under. This is why gedolei haposkim did not allow the Agudah to take up cabinet positions to which they were entitled under coalition agreements. This is why Agudah representatives serve only as committee chairmen and deputy ministers, so that they are not personally responsible for the unavoidable aveiros that the government does, of which the worst is directly funding AZ. So it’s strange that Margi draws the line at phoney “rabbis”.
The Reform Movement agreed to the deal which will result in state funding but via the Ministry of Sport & Culture as a cultural entity and not via the Religious Services Ministry.
of course they would agree, money is money no matter where it came from
I agree with all the sentiments expressed here however why should we expect a secular state to believe orthodoxy is emes & conservative/reform/reconstructionist/humanist/jews4j/etc. is sheker, they already don’t believe in h-shem or his torah. Even regarding the more traditional fraay yidden I find it hard to believe that they’re so convinced conservative judaism is sheker. And what is now with todays new brand of so called open orthodoxy which is just as false as reform why do they get in while the conservatives are out?
#6 laytzonay hador omrim – The majority of the Jewish citizens in Israel are at the very least, traditionalist. That means that they believe in Hashem and at least observe some of the laws. What ever they don’t observe it for what ever reason and not because of any disbelief or questions of faith. When they go to Shul it always orthodox with a mechitza.
They view the conservative and the reforms movement as a joke or as you would say sheker.
Unfortunately, their always exception and the Justice department is one of them.