Tel Aviv
Israel’s new government has taken aim at the country’s powerful religious establishment with a pair of reforms that would chip away at the tight grip of the country’s chief rabbinate on many aspects of daily life.
The reforms, which address rules on kosher food and conversions to Judaism, make only modest changes to current practices.
But they have nonetheless sparked protests and outrage from religious leaders, underscoring the rabbis’ power and the deep divide between Israel’s observant and secular communities.
The Israeli rabbinate, backed by powerful ultra-Orthodox allies in parliament, have for decades wielded a tight grip over areas like weddings, divorces, and burials.
The formation of a new government last year without any ultra-Orthodox parties cleared the way for the reforms.
“For many years no change or reform regarding religious services was carried out whatsoever,” said Shuki Friedman, vice president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank, who helped draft one of the reforms. “Now there is a government that is succeeding to change that.”
Israel views its Jewish character as a critical part of its identity and tasked the chief rabbinate decades ago with preserving that trait. But its power has frustrated many Israelis who see the religious body as corrupt and meddling.
The time has come for the chief rabbis to understand that they are causing the most sacrilege to the state of Israel. They are causing the non-religious public in Israel to loathe Judaism,” said Rabbi David Stav, who heads Tzohar, a group that provides alternative Orthodox religious services outside the framework of the rabbinate.
Architects of the reforms say they are meant to streamline a cumbersome system and break up the rabbinate’s monopoly. The ultra-Orthodox establishment sees itself as the guardian of Israel’s Jewish identity after centuries of persecution and assimilation.
