Lawmakers vote to extend term of Chief Rabbinate Council until end of 2024
Critics dismiss law as attempt to allow conservative religious elements to gain greater control over composition of the Chief Rabbi Election Assembly and sideline women
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Lawmakers voted 55-47 on Monday afternoon to approve the first reading of a bill extending the terms of the members of the Chief Rabbinate Council until the end of 2024.
The council, a governing body of 10 rabbis headed by Israel’s two chief rabbis, serves as the main authority on Jewish law for the government and for providers of religious services in the country.
In its explanatory notes, the bill noted that elections for both new chief rabbis and members of the council have been repeatedly delayed. It argued that without an extension, the five-year terms of the current members of the council will soon expire, leaving their positions unfilled — and as a result “the provision of important services to the entire population of Israel may be compromised.”
It also contended that it is important that the chief rabbis take part in selecting representatives on the 150 member Chief Rabbi Election Assembly, which selects the Chief Rabbinate Council. The election of the next chief rabbis will occur at the end of this month, following the expiration of the council’s current term.
Israel’s two chief rabbis, Ashkenazi David Lau and Sephardi Yitzhak Yosef, both stepped down from their posts in July, leaving the positions officially vacant for the first time in more than a century, after elections for their replacements and for the Chief Rabbinate Council were repeatedly pushed off.
They were elected to 10-year terms in 2013.
The elections were initially delayed by the Knesset last summer after Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party argued that municipal voting could interfere with the rabbinical elections.
But the date was then pushed off again because of two rulings from the Supreme Court. Both Lau and Yosef come from rabbinic dynasties and the court ruled that, because both have brothers running for their posts, the chief rabbis could not have a hand in choosing members of the body that votes for their successors. The second ruling instructed them to “consider” appointing more women to the voting body.
Critics alleged that the law extending the terms of the members of the Chief Rabbinate Council — which will now go to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee for deliberation — is intended to provide the ultra-Orthodox with more time to pass a law that would bypass a recent High Court decision stipulating that women may also be considered “rabbis” for the purposes of the Chief Rabbi Election Assembly.
Rabbi Seth Farber of Itim, a Jerusalem-based advocacy group for reforming Israel’s religious bureaucracies, said that if it passes three readings and becomes law, Monday’s bill would allow conservative religious elements to gain greater control over the composition of the Chief Rabbi Election Assembly going forward.
“If they extend the terms when it comes to the election of the Chief Rabbinate Council,” then the next chief rabbis will be able to choose 10 male delegates to represent them because by then the Haredim will have passed “a law saying no women are needed,” he said.
“So that next time the Chief Rabbinate Council is elected, [the chief rabbis] will be much more in control.”
The law currently states that 80 of the 150 delegates are rabbis: 10 are personal appointees of the chief rabbis, and another 70 are municipal rabbis affiliated with the Chief Rabbinate. The 70 delegates who are not rabbis include mayors, lawmakers, cabinet ministers, and other public representatives.
Only 140 delegates are currently slated to vote in the upcoming election after Justice Ministry officials told the former chief rabbis that they were not to participate in the elections themselves nor to appoint delegates on their behalf, due to nepotism concerns.
The explanatory notes to Monday’s bill stated that, while the council’s tenure is being extended, Religious Services Minister Malkieli “plans to promote bills in which female representation will be added to the Chief Rabbi Election Assembly and, at the same time, will clarify who can serve as representatives of the chief rabbis in the Chief Rabbi Election Assembly.”
It noted that there are currently two bills on this topic laid on the Knesset table, including a proposal by New Hope MK Ze’ev Elkin, which would define rabbis as men, while mandating expanded representation for women in the assembly.
Extending the terms of the Chief Rabbinate Council’s members is “just another attempt to take control of central positions of power within the rabbinate… to take away the power from the community and the larger constituency who is served by the rabbinate,” Farber said, comparing it to recently failed legislation that would have given Malkieli increased influence over the appointment process of municipal rabbis.
Canaan Lidor and JTA contributed to this report.
