Knesset committee chairman pushes off vote on highly contentious rabbis bill
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"

Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman Simcha Rothman postpones a vote on a bill that would dramatically change how municipal rabbis are chosen, following outspoken opposition by lawmakers.
Announcing the postponement due to insufficient support within the committee, Rothman lashes out at Likud lawmakers Moshe Saada and Tally Gotliv, who vocally declined to support the controversial measure.
Their opposition is “a shame and a disgrace,” he says, complaining that after all the issues on which they stayed silent, such as the government’s “waffling” in Rafah, they choose to take a stand on this one.
If passed into law, the bill could cost taxpayers tens of millions of shekels annually in salaries for hundreds of new neighborhood rabbis employed by local municipalities. Critics of the bill allege that it would benefit the Shas party by providing jobs for its apparatchiks and increasing the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate’s say both in appointing rabbis and in how they operate.
Lawmakers from both the coalition and legislation voiced objections to the reintroduction of the law during today’s hearing, with Gotliv repeatedly interrupting the proceedings as Rothman called for order.
Federation of Local Authorities chief Haim Bibas also objects to the bill, accusing Rothman of silencing him.
During the hearing, Rothman orders the removal of Yesh Atid MK Yorai Lahav-Hertzanu after he loudly decried the law. In a tweet, Lahav-Hertzanu calls the committee meeting a “horror show by Simcha Rothman, who just threw me out of the committee just because I asked a question about a section of the law.”
The law is “a moral disgrace, and I will continue to oppose it with all my might,” he says.