Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon is proposing a merger of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Ministry of Religious Services.

Every year, the Ministry of Finance publishes structural changes in government ministries, which are meant to improve regulation alongside budgetary savings.

Kikar Shabbos News is reporting that among the changes that the Ministry of Finance is going to seek is a reform that will unite the Ministry of Religious Services and the Chief Rabbinate into one headquarters.

This would result in only one director-general for both agencies, one legal advisor, and so one, reducing the budget significantly. The treasury is looking to cut the ministry’s annual budget by NIS 4 million.

In addition, the Finance Ministry wants to cut NIS 7 million from the Ministry of Religious Affairs budget starting in 2019, in order not to participate in five percent of the budget of religious councils.

All in all, this is a cut of NIS 11 million from the Ministry of Religious Services budget.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)