Prime Minister's Office Director-General Avigdor Yitzchaki
revealed to the Knesset Finance Committee the new plan to
replace the present religious councils (moatzot dat),
which are slated for closure, presenting three models for
providing religious services according to the needs and
resources of the respective cities.
Yitzchaki said 134 cities, towns and settlements across the
country are preparing for the recovery program and the change
in the status of the current religious councils. According to
the new law, which will be integrated into the Arrangements
Law, there will no longer be a salary for deputy religious
council chairmen, and whether the chairman will be paid is
still under consideration. Who will run religious services
remains a question.
Yitzchaki then presented the Knesset members with the
following three models:
1. In large cities such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa,
where demand for religious services is high, a special
department will be set up in the municipality for their
provision.
2. In cities where demand is relatively light and the matter
of religious services is not taken seriously, to use
Yitzchaki's words, such as Herzliya and Ramat Hasharon, an
"association for religious services" will be set up and will
serve several neighboring towns.
3. In small settlements and moshavim an entity similar to
today's regional religious councils will be set up to serve
all of the settlements in the area.
Yitzchaki said the Prime Minister's office is currently
assembling new councils and associations, which will be
announced soon.
During the meeting a sharp dispute broke out between United
Torah Jewry committee members MKs Rabbi Moshe Gafni and Rabbi
Yaakov Litzman and Director-General Yitzchaki regarding the
difficult situation many religious council workers around the
country have been placed in, after not receiving their
salaries for months and in some cases even a year or more.
Yitzchaki repeated his earlier declarations that the
religious council workers are not seen as state employees and
the government does not consider itself responsible for
paying their salaries or pensions, thereby dismissing charges
of withholding their salaries. "Just as we are not
responsible for paying mayors despite granting balancing
grants, and just as we are not responsible for paying city
firefighters' associations, we are not responsible for the
pay of religious council workers," said Yitzchaki.
Rabbi Gafni lodged harsh criticism against Yitzchaki for his
hard stance against every solution for withheld pay for
religious council employees. "We were present in the Knesset
at meetings where the heart-rending and shocking
circumstances that have befallen religious council workers
were shown. The situation of hundreds of workers is
declining," he said protesting the 50 percent cut in
religious councils for 2004. "I ask you, Mr. Director-
General, what other budget has been cut so drastically, from
NIS 120 million per year to NIS 70 million next year? This
means you are telling us there is no longer any need for
religious services or for the state's Jewish character. You
are strangling religious services. You are making it
impossible to pay wages at the religious councils. Will we
now be able to say this is a heartless government? What
explanation can there be for this frenzied cutting of the
religious council budgets? This is an arbitrary decision to
insult and starve religious council employees."
MK Rabbi Litzman also spoke harshly against Yitzchaki's
attempt to deny responsibility for religious council
employees. "How could it be that we have held numerous
discussions about religious council employees for many
months, and only [now] for the first time am I suddenly
hearing that they are not even government workers and that
the government does not see itself as responsible for paying
their wages? To what address can a religious council worker
turn? According to what you are saying, he has nowhere to
direct his justifying claims of withheld pay. Where are such
things heard of?"
In response Director-General Yitzchaki reiterated his
position that religious council workers do not have the
status of government workers, but revealed that a special
fund is being planned at the Prime Minister's Office to
assist places where money will have to be made available for
budgeting the pensions of religious council workers, with
whom an agreement will be reached.
At a Knesset plenum held earlier Religious Affairs Deputy
Minister Yitzhak Levy said he contacted the Attorney General
to receive his binding legal opinion on the status of
religious council workers following contradictory opinions on
the issue given by legal consultants at various ministries.
Some ministries--such as the Finance Ministry--claim the
government and local authorities have no responsibility
toward religious council workers, towards salaries and
pensions or toward debts, while others hold the state and the
municipalities do have a responsibility toward the religious
councils.
Levy spoke in the Knesset in response to a question submitted
by MK Rabbi Litzman, who claimed the Finance Ministry is
presenting the Knesset Finance Committee various suggestions
regarding the religious councils and the religious council
workers, and expressed wonder, "how the Finance Ministry can
intervene to suggest various proposals regarding religious
council workers when it is not responsible for their pay and
they are not even working for it? How can it say whether to
close or not to close, whether there should be a chairman or
should not be a chairman? How is this relevant to [the
Finance Ministry] if it is not responsible for pensions or
salaries?"
Deputy Minister Levy expressed full agreement with Rabbi
Litzman's challenge. "You're one hundred percent right," he
said. "I think the Finance Ministry's involvement is out of
place. I think the Finance Ministry is trying to `dance at
every wedding.' Unfortunately we are part of the same
government and on this I have no answer. I think the Finance
Ministry is taking an incorrect stance toward the workers.
The state must take responsibility for all religious council
workers and attend to the debts owed to them. These are heavy
debts. If this is not done, even if there is enough [funding]
in the regular 2004 budget, it will not be of much assistance
since the matter will get mired down," he warned.
Later he added, "we are currently making numerous efforts and
if the matter is not solved with the Finance Minister it will
be brought before the Prime Minister for a final decision and
the Knesset will also be able to have its say through this or
other channels."
