Legislation to be advanced to allow Elkin to serve on rabbinical judges committee

Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana of Yamina will bring a bill to a vote in the cabinet next week that will allow Housing and Construction Minister Ze’ev Elkin to serve on the Committee for the Appointment of Rabbinic Judges.

The legislation, if passed, would also preserve the terms of the current law stipulating that at least four women serve on the committee, including at least two female representatives from the four committee members who must come from the government and Knesset.

A spokesman for Kahana insisted that the bill is designed to reduce haredi (ultra-Orthodox) influence on the panel and thereby lead to the appointment of more moderate rabbinical judges.

But the coalition agreement between Elkin’s New Hope Party and Yesh Atid states specifically that the housing and construction minister be appointed as a member of the rabbinical court’s appointments committee.

The wording of the legislation Kahana will bring for a vote in the Knesset also appears designed specifically to allow Elkin to serve on the committee.

The Committee for the Appointment of Rabbinic Judges is comprised of the two chief rabbis, two rabbinical judges from the Supreme Rabbinical Court, two government ministers, two MKs, two members of the Israel Bar Association, and a female rabbinical court advocate.

The current law, proposed and passed by former MKs Aliza Lavie of Yesh Atid and Shuli Mualem of Bayit Yehudi back in 2013, already guarantees that four women serve on the committee.

The purpose of the law was to give women influence over the identity of state-appointed rabbinical judges who have a weighty influence over the lives of women but who are perforce all men since the chief rabbinate only gives rabbinical judge qualifications to men.

Since four men are guaranteed a place on the panel, the two chief rabbis and the two rabbinical judges who by dint of Israeli law must be men, Lavie and Mualem sought to counterbalance their influence.

According to the 2013 legislation, one of the two government ministers serving on the panel must be a woman, along with one of the two MKs on the committee.

But due to the current constellation of government ministers, Elkin could not serve on the committee since Kahana will be the male minister.

In order to circumvent that problem, the legislation being advanced changes the requirement that one minister and one MK be women, to a requirement that “at least two of the government and Knesset representatives” be women.

This would allow Elkin to serve at the same time as Kahana, while ensuring that there are still four women who are guaranteed a spot on the committee, since both MKs can be women.

Elkin did not immediately respond to a request for comment as to why obtaining a spot on the committee was so important to him, so much so that a clause to this affect was included in New Hope’s coalition agreements, and legislation is being advanced to guarantee his place.

Elkin, who is himself from the religious-Zionist community, has in the past been known for his close ties with the haredi parties.

He is also well-known as one of the canniest political operatives in the Knesset, and understands the patronage power inherent in the committee, which can be used in exchange for political advantage in other realms.

Kahana’s spokesman pointed out that since the women on the panel selected from the government and Knesset would have to now come from the Knesset, it would mean that haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism would have no representatives on the committee since they have no female MKs.

This would give a better chance of appointing more moderate rabbinical judges “who have experienced full Israeli life, and who have met and understand secular Israelis and who have not just spent all their lives in yeshiva and aren’t familiar with the Israeli reality” said Kahana’s spokesman.

A broader life experience will hopefully affect the rulings of such rabbinical judges, he added.

Attorney Batya Kahana-Dror, an expert on family law and the rabbinical courts, said it was critical to appoint more liberal rabbinical judges to the courts in order that the courts’ rulings “reflect an understanding that men and women should have equitable power in deciding when the marriage needs to be terminated.”

This is needed to stop some men, and women, from abusing their power to grant and accept a divorce, to extract better terms in a divorce settlement, or simply to prevent their spouse from starting a new life.

Kahana-Dror emphasized that the goal was to appoint liberal judges, noting that some haredi judges are liberal and some religious-Zionist judges very conservative.

There are currently at least six open positions on the regional rabbinical courts, and three on the Supreme Rabbinical Court.

Separately, Matan Kahana met with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai on Tuesday to coordinate elections for a municipal chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, a post which has been open since the former chief rabbi of the city and former national chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau retired in 2017.

The position is both prestigious and influential, with the incumbent holding an automatic position on the influential Council of the Chief Rabbinate.