UTJ's rabbis to decide Wednesday on joining cabinet

United Torah Judaism’s Council of Torah Sages, a rabbinic panel that makes the political party’s key policy decisions, will meet on Wednesday to decide on the party’s response to the High Court ruling that forbids party leader Yaakov Litzman from serving as deputy health minister with full ministerial powers, the party says.

The court ruled Sunday that since Litzman serves as the de facto minister in the Health Ministry, the law requires that he also hold the minister’s post de jure.

Litzman is head of the ultra-Orthodox Knesset faction United Torah Judaism, whose rabbis have resisted fully joining the cabinet in order not to be seen as legitimizing a Jewish state that does not fully adhere to Jewish religious law.