Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli requested a list of representatives to serve on selection committees for municipal rabbis, apparently indicating that his ultra-Orthodox Shas party has given up — at least temporarily — on passing a controversial bill that would have increased its influence over the appointment process.
Malkieli initiated the process following delays caused by Shas’s desire to hold off on choosing new rabbis prior to passing the “Rabbis Law,” the Ynet news site reported, stating that the party no longer believes it would be possible to advance the bill through the Knesset plenum.
A copy of an August 28 letter sent to Malkieli by the Chief Rabbinate, viewed by The Times of Israel, shows the appointment of representatives to the selection committees in 48 separate municipalities, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa.
Contacted by The Times of Israel, a spokesman for the minister said that the minister was merely following existing law, stating that his “initiative is to uphold the law.”
Asked whether Shas has therefore given up on the law, the spokesman replied that he did not believe so, “but there is an understanding that it is not certain that it would pass.”
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
Spokespeople for Shas and the party’s MK Erez Malul, the bill’s sponsor, did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday afternoon regarding the implications of Malkieli’s decision to advance the process of choosing municipal rabbis.
A copy of a letter sent to Malkieli by the Chief Rabbinate, seen by The Times of Israel, shows representatives being appointed to selection committees in 48 separate municipalities, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. pic.twitter.com/9ewz03e8cG
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) August 28, 2024
Rabbi Seth Farber, the director of the ITIM advocacy group, which opposes the bill, stated that his organization was “gratified that the law has been tabled — at least for now.”
“However, we remain concerned that the Shas minister will use his influence to manipulate municipalities to appoint rabbis to lifetime positions,” Farber stated.
The first version of the law would have created hundreds of publicly funded jobs for Orthodox rabbis, while giving the Chief Rabbinate considerable say in the appointment of all new municipal rabbis, reversing changes instituted in 2022 by the previous government.
Critics of the bill alleged that it would benefit Shas by providing jobs for its apparatchiks and increasing the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate’s say both in appointing rabbis and in how they operate.
After being blocked in June by two Likud lawmakers, Shas subsequently advanced a more limited version of the bill, which was aimed at granting Malkieli the power to allocate additional funds to local religious councils around the country.
Shas leader MK Aryeh Deri with Israeli minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir during a Shas party meeting, at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on January 23, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
It would have amended the Religious Services Law, which regulates how much the government and municipalities contribute respectively to the budgets of the bodies providing communal religious services at the city and regional council levels.
The bill stated that the religious services minister would be allowed, with the agreement of the finance minister, to pay for “salary expenses and positions beyond what is stated” in the law.
However, that legislation’s advancement was repeatedly stymied as part of an ongoing dispute with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who said that he would continue to hold it up until he was given greater influence over the course of the war by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
During a special mid-recess plenum session earlier this month, Ben Gvir torpedoed the Shas-backed Religious Services Law for the third time, slamming the ultra-Orthodox party for allegedly blocking his inclusion in a senior ministerial forum dealing with the conflict.
A spokesman for Ben Gvir did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
National Unity MK Matan Kahana, Malkieli’s predecessor as Religious Services Minister, expressed skepticism that Shas had dropped the measure for good.
Then-religious affairs minister Matan Kahana attends a Knesset House Committee hearing to declare MK Amichai Chikli a defector from his Yamina party, April 25, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“Who said they are giving up permanently? Maybe they realized that, in the meantime, they have to work with the existing system,” he told The Times of Israel.
“What stops Shas from promoting the Rabbis Law, which completely changes the entire way in which city rabbis are elected, is the quarrel with Ben Gvir. They understand that Ben Gvir will not let them pass this law. That’s why they probably decided to start appointing rabbis with the help of the regulations that were amended when I was religious services minister,” he continued.
“These are regulations that greatly simplified the entire process of selecting rabbis, and even if the Shas has less control over which rabbi will be chosen for each place, I am glad that they realized that it is more important that rabbis be appointed than that the rabbis necessarily be [affiliated with Shas]. It should be noted that, even per the regulations that exist today, they have quite a bit of influence on the process, so it is puzzling to me why they delayed for so long.”
pdcc