The question being asked in the Chief Rabbinate of Israel is “what happened to Minister of Religious Services Naftali Bennett regarding the Giyur Bill?” The reason for the anger and concern is that Bennett is conspicuously quiet on the matter, preferring to permit his deputy minister, Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, to address the issue while distancing himself.
In their meeting on Tuesday 4 Marcheshvan with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Rishon L’Tzion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita and Chief Rabbi Dovid Lau Shlita stated they have no intentions of becoming a “rubber stamp” on the giyur matter. Adding to this is a statement from Deputy Minister Ben-Dahan claiming the chief rabbis refuse to meet with rabbis from the dati leumi tzibur in an effort to reach a compromise on the conversion issue. Hence the question is being asked is where is Bennett and why is the minister not intervening in this matter of the utmost importance?
The dati leumi Srugim agency quotes a source in the Chief Rabbinate explaining “the main reason for the anger is some are questioning why the non-religious prime minister is asked to find a solution instead of the head of the dati leumi party, who happens to be the minister of religious services”.
The source continues, explaining that what has the Chief Rabbinate infuriated is that Bennett is ignoring the entire matter, pointing out that while they were trying to reach a solution with the prime minister, Bennett was traveling to communities in Yehuda and Shomron. In addition, when Bennett met earlier this week with faction members of his Bayit Yehudi party, he briefed them on economic and diplomatic matters, not mentioning a word about the Giyur Bill. “There has never been a minister responsible for religious affairs in Israel who is so disconnected from his responsibilities” states the Chief Rabbinate source, adding “Bennett has not met with the chief rabbis and has done nothing towards resolving the giyur issue, adding if the rabbinical community begins to maintain yuchasin records, we can close down the entire state and throw the bill into the trash bin of history for it will be worthless for no one will rely upon it”.
The report continues, quoting the Chief Rabbinate source explaining that Bennett has reached a crossroad and must decide if he wishes to have the dati leumi community behind him too or is he satisfied with just the support of the non-religious community. If he wants the religious support then he must address the giyur issue before the entire matter explodes, leaving the prime minister to deal with it as he sees fit, adding the bill should have been toppled a long time before it was.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
3 Responses
Good morning; Benett has ignored his own Rabbanim in the draft law and other issues when he joined forces with vicked Lapid to destroy Torah and Judaism. It’s time for the Dati Leumi Rabbanim to throw in the towel and how comes that several DatiLeumi MK’s, Talmidim from their Yeshivot are part of the anti-jewish Lapid Party or his government.
The Dati Leumi Derech has bitterly failed!
What a load of hooey.
Bennett is formally the Minister of Religious Services and Rav Ben-Dahan is Deputy Minister since under the coalition agreement, (a) there is a maximum number of ministers, and (b) Bayit Yehudi is only entitled to a certain number of ministers. The result is that someone (in this case, Bennett) is formally appointed as Minister, but a Deputy Minister essentially runs the ministry with full ministerial authority.
This is no different from the last givernment, where the Netanyahu was formally Health Minister, but Ya’akov Litzman was Deputy Health Minister and was the one who actually ran the ministry.
If you want to criticize the Giyur bill, or criticize Bennett for, as head of Bayit Yehudi, not taking a more active stance on it, by all means, do so. Just please, don’t set up a straw man to attack on this.
an Israeli Yid
I was simply referring to the many datileumi MK’s in Yesh Atid, Hatnuah and other anti-religious parties as well as all the ones in Yisrael Bateinu supporting the various anti-religious bills.