The Ministry of Religious Services has informed the Supreme Court that elections for civil service rabbis serving as heads of cities will be delayed until after the election for chief rabbis. The ministry asked the court for a four-month delay to permit sufficient time to study recommendations for amending the election process for municipal rabbis in line with the court’s recommendation.

The ministry was responding to a petition filed by the Movement for Torah and V’Avodah, which is seeking to have the current election process disqualified on the grounds that it is discriminatory against women, Orthodox Jews that do not belong to a shul, as well as non religious Jews, all of whose lives are effected by rulings of a city’s rav.

The court about 18 months ago instructed the state to respond, explaining why the current election regulations should not be modified. Sometime later, the court

Recommended changing the election process, but then Minister of Religious Affairs (Shas) Yaakov Margi indicated he had no plans to do so. With a new minister, Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, the Torah V’Avodah organization agreed to a four-month extension to permit Ben-Dahan sufficient time to study the situation prior to holding elections for chief rabbis in Yerushalayim and other cities.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)