Rabbinic judges panel at loggerheads

The Rabbinic Judges Appointments Committee is at loggerheads as different religious political parties push for the election of rabbinic judges who agree with their views on Jewish law, Channel 2 reports.

The committee is meeting in Jerusalem for the first time in four years. It has long been a battleground between Zionist Orthodox rabbis close to the Jewish Home party and its predecessors and ultra-Orthodox rabbis tied to Shas and United Torah Judaism.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, a committee member, is pushing for modern Orthodox Zionist rabbis close to her Jewish Home party, while Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef leads the fight to appoint ultra-Orthodox judges.

The committee must appoint 31 new dayanim, or rabbinic judges, to Israel’s state rabbinic court system — some one-third of the total number of judges.