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3 Cheshvan 5760 - October 13, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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The High Court Orders the Religious Affairs Ministry to Change its Criteria and Support the Conservative Movement

by Betzalel Kahn and Ittim

When the Conservative movement in Israel could clearly not meet the general criteria established by the Religious Affairs Ministry for its support, the High Court simply ordered the Ministry to change its criteria. Last Thursday, 27 Tishrei, the High Court determined that the criteria for the allocation of support to the nationwide Torah institutions are illegal, and therefore null and void. This decision was made in the wake of a petition filed by the Conservative movement. The justices of the Supreme Court ordered the Religious Affairs Ministry to transfer to the Conservative movement support at the rate in which it was allotted them in '96 for the years of '97 and '98, taking the funds out of the budget of '99 or 2000.

In '97, the Finance Committee decided to change the support criteria of the Religious Affairs Ministry for Torah-culture institutions. Until that year, the support had been divided among categories of nationwide, regional and municipal organizations, in addition to women's, children's and youth organizations. The Conservative movement had been receiving support as a regional organization.

As a result of the change, support was limited to large, nationwide organizations. The reason given for the change was the inability to properly supervise the thousands of small and often short-lived organizations which seek support. The change was made across the board, and many organizations lost their funding.

As a result, the Conservative movement did not receive funding, since it did not meet the criteria of a nationwide organization. These include being active in at least 30 settlements, or conducting activities attended by at least 10,000 people, and offering 2000 classes a month. The Conservative movement, it was claimed in the petition, functions in only 15 settlements, and gives 500 classes a month in which 2892 people participate.

The Conservatives appealed to the Supreme Court to cancel the support criteria, claiming that they prevent it from receiving support, even though it functions on a nationwide basis. They claimed that the criteria are inequitable, and that canceling the support of regional organizations should have been accompanied by a broadening of the quantitative definition of a nationwide organization.

They claimed, too, that the groups which meet the criteria of a nationwide organizations achieved this size because they received support from the State treasury, and that it is unfair that the expansion of these organizations should serve as the cause for denial of support to other organizations, which did not benefit from State support, and as a result did not manage to become large organizations. By the same token, the movement claimed that the criteria limit the support to the institutions which have a broad base, which are those of Orthodox Jewry, and prevent smaller institutions from expressing a different religious conception.

The reason given for the change in the criteria was the many small and often short-lived organizations which applied for support, and the difficulty in supervising them. At the deliberation in the Supreme Court it became clear that only 171 organizations applied for support as Torah institutions in 1995-1996 and not 2000, as had been claimed before the change. The justices of the Supreme Court decided to accept the appeal, and to revoke the criteria which had been determined for the support to Torah institutions.

Chareidi observers said that by this ruling, one of many in favor of the heretical movements, the justices of the Supreme Court have proved again that their partiality to the heretical movements, which receive legitimization from the Supreme Court, even though they are, in terms of real numbers, very irrelevant. "The Supreme Court has proven over and over again, that the its judicial autocracy influences all of its decisions, and that its purpose is to undermine the accomplishments made by chareidi Jewry over recent years." The appearance is that Court allowed itself to intervene in what should be a purely bureaucratic decision, in order to benefit a movement which it favors.


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