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2 Teves 5774 - December 5, 2013 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Rundown of Week's Anti-Religious Laws

By Yated Ne'eman Staff, Yechiel Sever

One City Rav Instead of Two

The Ministerial Legislative Committee approved this Monday a bill to appoint only one chief municipal rav instead of the two who have served until now, one Ashkenazi and the other Sephardi. The proposal also limits their tenure to ten years, with a possible second ten year term.

The bill "Appointing Municipal Rabbis and the Choice Thereof", initiated by MK Elazar Stern (Hatnuah), was supported by the committee members, except for the representatives of Habayit Hayehudi, who opposed it. According to this bill, aside from the appointment of only one chief rabbi instead of one Ashkenazi and one Sephardi to date, the tenure of the appointed rabbi will be limited to ten years with the option of a second term. It was further proposed to limit the age of said rabbis from age 40 to 70 as is the rule for the national Chief Rabbis. Similarly, it was decided to appoint women as representatives in the committee to choose and appoint those municipal rabbis.

The effect of the law is to undermine the status of the official city and settlement rabbis, and is parallel to the petitions presented to the High Court regarding the very existence of the institution of municipal chief rabbi. As reported several weeks ago, the Knesset recently passed the Zohar law which abolishes the authority of the local rabbi regarding marriage registration for those who live in his area, which was part of his responsibility, thereby creating a terrible breach in the purity of Jewish genealogy.

Hatzoloh Volunteers Must Have Bagrut Matriculation Degrees

In a recent administrative memorandum sent out by the Health Ministry, a necessary condition for acceptance to a paramedic course is, for the first time, a clause requiring candidates for the position of emergency medical technician or ambulance driver to present a Bagrut (matriculation) diploma recognized by government offices. The practical and designed effect is to eliminate the entire chareidi volunteer network for medical assistance which is a major factor of Kiddush Hashem throughout the entire Jewish world.

In response, MK Rabbi Yaakov Asher appealed to the Minister of Health, Yael Gorman from Yesh Atid, in a letter which read, in part: "As is known, the chareidi sector has a large number of volunteers serving in various life saving organizations who work tirelessly to save human lives without any discrimination. The new prerequisite will prevent hundreds of chareidi volunteers from learning this profession and from saving lives. Up to now, no candidate has been required to answer to this requirement."

MK Rabbi Asher added in his letter that "it is clear to all that the motive of the Health Ministry, which encourages the aspect of volunteering for the purpose of saving lives, is not to curtail this important adjunct or tamper with the process whereby thousands of chareidi volunteer paramedics were trained. Consequently, I appeal to you and ask you to intervene so as to eliminate this restrictive clause limiting the acceptance of candidates to the courses, and thus enable equality to all the sectors to learn this vocation and to save lives."

 

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