Shas, Otzma Yehudit face off over controversial Chief Rabbinate bills

A power struggle between Otzma Yehudit and Shas sharpened in the past few days after Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir attempted to block a bill that would give Shas near-complete control over rabbinical appointments in cities, towns and even neighborhoods nationwide.

Shas, the Sephardi haredi (ultra-Orthodox) party, controls both offices that have the most influence on religious services – the Religious Services Ministry and the Interior Ministry, and is attempting to pass two laws that intend to consolidate its power at all levels of the rabbinical hierarchy.

Cause for delay

Shas’s central argument for the delay is that the election committee includes representatives from the 35 local authorities – and the upcoming election to local authorities on October 31 means that the people voting will soon not be in power. The delay to 2024 would enable the local officials elected in October to have a voice in who will serve as chief rabbi and on the Chief Rabbinate Council.

Despite Shas’s explanations, Knesset members from the opposition and from Otzma Yehudit have accused the party of having a different motive for the delay: Shas chairman MK Arye Deri wants more time to ensure that his brother, Chief Rabbi of Beersheba Yehuda Deri, and his ally, Rabbi David Yosef, will occupy the positions of Sephardi chief rabbi and chief rabbi of Jerusalem.

The bill to delay the election of the chief rabbis and the council is being prepared in the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee for its second and third reading on the Knesset floor, and could pass into law already next week.

The second bill, also being promoted by Shas, would weaken the power of local authorities in appointing local rabbis, would give the religious affairs minister significant power over the selection of municipal and neighborhood rabbis, and would subjugate the entire array of local rabbis and religious councils to the Chief Rabbinate.

Different cities have differing religious character – from the ultra-Orthodox Bnei Brak to the largely secular Tel Aviv – and accordingly, existing law gives local authorities a majority in the committee that is responsible to elect their authority’s chief rabbi. While local chief rabbis, meaning chief rabbis of cities, towns, regional councils, etc., are officially subordinate to the Chief Rabbinate, the reality on the ground is that each local chief rabbi has broad independence to adapt religious services to the character and needs of each authority, according to Tani Frank, director of the Center for Judaism and State Policy at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

The new law will alter this, both by stating in law that the Chief Rabbinate Council will be the “highest religious and halachic authority,” and by altering the makeup of the committees that elect the local rabbis so that the religious affairs minister and Chief Rabbinate – and not the local authority leaders themselves – have a majority, and can therefore, for example, appoint an ultra-Orthodox rabbi as the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv.