Municipal chief rabbis: Excommunicate rabbis who back religious reforms
A group of municipal chief rabbis have called for other municipal chief rabbis to be excommunicated should they establish kashrut authorities or their own conversion courts.
A group of municipal chief rabbis have called for excommunicating other municipal chief rabbis who establish kashrut authorities or their own conversion courts, as proposed by pending government legislation.
The
list of rabbis includes the Chief Rabbi of Mevasseret Zion Rabbi Shlomo
Ben Ezra, Chief Rabbi of Nesher Rabbi Yitzhak Halevy, Chief Rabbi of
Ramle Yehiel Abuhatzeira, and several other prominent rabbis.
“A
person whether rabbi or hacham or visionary who oversteps the
boundaries to give kashrut [supervision] or who establishes conversion
courts of any kind without permission from the leading rabbi of the
locality, or the local rabbinate, or the chief rabbinate, will be
excommunicated. He will be ejected from the holy community of rabbis and
of the Jewish people and the trust in him to provide kashrut
[supervision] or to do conversions will be removed. He will be like a
false witness who is disqualified from giving testimony,” wrote the
rabbis.
The letter was issued under the letterhead of the Committee of Rabbis of Israel and signed by hand by the signatory rabbis.
The letter refers to reforms proposed by
Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana which would end the Chief
Rabbinate’s monopoly on kashrut supervision, and allow anyone with
qualifications to serve as a municipal chief rabbi to establish an
independent kashrut authority.
In
addition, Kahana also intends to introduce legislation allowing
municipal chief rabbis to establish their own conversion courts,
decentralizing the Chief Rabbinate’s control over the process.
After
initially publishing the original letter, the same rabbis published a
milder version of their missive, denouncing both pieces of legislation
and any rabbi who utilizes such a law, but falling short of calling for
them to be excommunicated.
The
Itim religious services organization sent a request to Justice Minister
Gideon Sa’ar that a complaint be filed to a disciplinary court against
the signatory rabbis, saying such language and threats violate
disciplinary laws for religious services which prohibit municipal chief
rabbis from acting against the law or government policy.
“It’s
inappropriate and even illegal for government employees such as
municipal chief rabbis to express their disagreement with government
policy and threaten others who wish to implement government policy with
all kinds of religious threats,” said Itim director Rabbi Seth Farber.
“Threats
by rabbis have brought us to incredibly dark places in recent Jewish
history. What ought to be a debate about the Jewish future and how to
implement Jewish law in the State of Israel has become a forum where
individual rabbis see an opportunity to destroy others.”
