A number of weeks ago, YWN-Israel reported that newly-appointed dayanim in the Chief Rabbinate of Israel batei din were working, but there was no budgetary allocation to pay some of their salaries. Nevertheless, they began working to assist in clearing the extended backlog in cases, in the hope the bureaucratic issues surrounding their salaries would be cleared up.

Four of the 24 appointed are now aware that there is no allocation for their salaries, leading to them filing a legal case against the state for two months of wages. The lawsuit is against the Beit Din Administration, the Finance Ministry, Justice Ministry and Ministry of Religious Services. The dayanim, Rabbi Moshe Haviv, Rabbi Naftali Heisler, Rabbi Ephraim Bugrad and Rabbi Oded Machman, have filed their case with the Jerusalem Labor Court.

The dayanim call on the Labor Court to instruct the state to pay their salaries retroactively towards maintaining their status regarding pensions and Bituach Leumi as far as the date they began working. Each dayan is suing for NIS 60,331, in addition to compensatory payment for late payments in the amount of NIS 16,339.

When the Beit Din Administration is asked to comment, officials explain Deputy Finance Minister (Shas) Yitzchak Cohen says he is addressing the matter, which will be included in state budget.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)