The Ministry of Religious Services in the current administration has implemented many reforms. Minister Naftali Bennett and Deputy Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan announce they are dedicated to cutting red tape and enhancing religious services to residents of Israel. They also place an emphasis on transparency and accountability.
Towards achieving the latter, civil service rabbonim have been instructed to complete a monthly report of their activities to account for their time and justify their salaries. The ministry reports that to date, 80% of the rabbonim have not complied.
Rabbonim were sent the appropriate forms via express mail courier but by and large, most have ignored the accountability requirement.
According to the dati leumi affiliated Kippa website, quoting ‘inside information’, of the 267 rabbonim that received a request to complete the monthly paperwork only 54 bothered to respond. 213 did not to comply.
Ministry officials report that after checking into it, “There appears to be a technical issue, many rabbonim simply did not understand the forms and the new requirement. The lack of compliance does not constitute a measure of compliance or non compliance, simply a misunderstanding and lack of communication”.
Ministry officials add that in the future, rabbonim who fail to complete and submit the monthly reports will not be paid.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
It is an inherently impossible task, perhaps similar in America to being a “shul rabbi” for a congregation in which the majority of the members including the officers are not frum (which in most of America was resolved by the shul becoming non-orthodox).
This is vindication of the “hard core” hareidi approach of trying to ignore the government’s “rabbinut” and creating parallel services in all areas.