After protests, coalition refreezes bill hiking number of municipal rabbis
Likud members join National Unity and New Hope lawmakers in opposing legislation that would have given Chief Rabbinate control of cushy appointments and removed guardrails
Cnaan Lidor is The Times of Israel's Jewish World reporter
Following objections by senior members of the wartime government, the coalition has indefinitely jettisoned proposed controversial legislation that would have paved the way for hundreds of new government-funded rabbinical posts.
Coalition Whip Ofir Katz cited “the need to strive toward unity” in a Tuesday statement announcing the decision to cancel discussion of the Jewish Religious Services Bill, which had been slated to be taken up by the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee later in the day.
Both the National Unity and New Hope coalition parties had objected to the bill being reintroduced, saying it violated terms of an agreement requiring that all parties agree on any legislation advanced during wartime.
The parties, led by Benny Gantz and Gideon Sa’ar respectively, had been part of the opposition before October 7, but joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox and far-right coalition following the Hamas onslaught on southern Israel.
The resurfacing of the bill, which Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman and Shas’s Erez Malul introduced in June but froze following the October massacre, had sparked speculation that National Unity and New Hope could bolt the wartime coalition.
If passed into law, the bill could cost taxpayers dozens of millions of shekels annually in salaries for hundreds of new neighborhood rabbis employed by local municipalities.
Critics of the bill say it would benefit Shas, the Sephardi Haredi party, by creating jobs for its apparatchiks and increasing the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate’s say both in appointing rabbis and in how they operate.
The decision to indefinitely postpone the discussion in committee about the bill followed a conversation with Shas leader Aryeh Deri, according to the statement by Katz.
“The bill is to be taken off the agenda. We must strive toward unity within our people whenever possible,” Katz said.
At least five Likud members also objected to advancing the bill, complicating its prospects of passing it in the plenum even if it cleared the committee, the Calcalist business daily reported. Among the Likud members who objected to it were Eli Dallal, a former deputy mayor of Netanya, and maverick lawmaker Tally Gotliv, according to Calcalist.
Gantz in a statement welcomed the shelving of the bill. “When our finest sons and daughters are fighting bravely in Gaza, and when 134 hostages are still held by Hamas, we must unite around the war’s objectives and not deal with controversial legislation that would sow dissent in the people and its leadership,” he said.
Rothman, head of the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, said only that he was certain that “we can manage the dispute over this issue in a dignified manner.”
The bill would create hundreds of publicly funded jobs for Orthodox rabbis, while giving the Chief Rabbinate of Israel considerable say in the appointment of all new municipal rabbis, reversing changes instituted in 2022 by former religious services minister Matan Kahana, a National Unity lawmaker.
It would also remove restrictions on holding a vote for a municipal rabbi in the immediate leadup to municipal or parliamentary elections – a stipulation meant to ensure that rabbinical appointments do not become currency in political trading — and lower the minimum number of women on the rabbinical appointment boards from 40 percent to one-third.
The legislation would do away with a requirement for cities to renew municipal rabbis’ terms every 10 years or give them the option of convening election assemblies to appoint a new rabbi. Instead, city rabbis would essentially hold their jobs until they turn 75, after which they would need to have the city that employs them extend their terms.
Israel has about 470 municipal rabbis in total. Their monthly salaries range from NIS 9,000 ($2,400) to NIS 43,000 ($11,200). Some 30 cities without a rabbi would be forced to hire one under the bill, and Tel Aviv and Haifa, which do not currently have any rabbis, would need to hire a minimum of two.
In an analysis of the bill over the summer, the Israel Democracy Institute found that it would allow for the hiring of 1,070 new rabbis, though there were only plans for 514, at a cost of NIS 120 million ($33 million).
