The government unanimously approved a series of proposals by
the Prime Minister's Office and the Housing Ministry intended
to improve state religious services, including the
immediately resumption of construction work on
mikvo'os and botei knesses, offsetting the
local authorities' debts to the religious councils and
transferring the funds directly and increasing the number of
positions and funding for mikveh workers.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made the decision to hold a
special cabinet meeting to address the issue of religious
services following a demand by Degel HaTorah to fulfill Likud
pledges in the coalition agreement to solve the problem at
the religious councils, to pay the rabbonim their salaries
and to provide mikveh workers around the country. The
discussion at the cabinet meeting was initiated by Government
Secretary Yisrael Maimon.
Meir Schpeigler, director of religious services at the Prime
Minister's Office, presented the government ministers a
comprehensive survey of the various problems in the area of
religious services. He told the ministers all renovation and
construction work related to mikvo'os and botei
knesses has been total frozen since the beginning of
2004. By the end of 2003 the State had channeled NIS 110
million to these projects, but since then they have been
badly neglected and many religious facilities have fallen
into total disuse.
Schpeigler claimed that no progress was made despite numerous
meetings in various forums to pinpoint the failures and
identify the parties responsible for the construction delays.
He also reported that in 2001-2002 the Religious Affairs
Ministry, then still in existence, issued tenders to renovate
and built mikvo'os and provide portable botei
knesses. When the ministry was dismantled however, the
matter was transferred to the Housing Ministry, which
released a mere NIS 7 million in advances. Later, despite a
directive by the Attorney General to act without delay to
execute the construction and install the portable structures,
no action was taken.
Construction and Housing Minister Yitzchak Herzog suggested
the immediate release of funding for portable structures
purchased long ago, the appointment of an overseer from the
Housing Ministry to accompany the project until its
completion, paying off the debts of the engineering
consultants, releasing funds for the continued construction
and renovation of mikvo'os across the country, and
placing them under the local authorities' charge by
summer.
The current state of the religious councils and the debts
owed to them by the local authorities was also raised at the
meeting. The religious councils receive 40 percent of their
funding from the State and 60 percent from the local
authorities. Schpeigler said that using the funding available
to them, the religious councils are unable to pay their
employees' and pensioners' wages in full. In 2004 alone, he
noted, the pensioners' wages came to NIS 90 million.
The State consistently transfers its 40 percent, but the
majority of local councils have not been providing their
share, leading to a budget deficit of NIS 200 million at the
religious councils largely due to NIS 160 million that 85
local authorities have failed to transfer.
As a result the government decided to continue carrying out
its reform in addition to activating a recovery program at
the religious councils. But to provide immediate relief it
was decided that the Prime Minister's Office, together with
the Attorney General and the Interior Ministry, would
formulate an accelerated arrangement to offset the local
authorities' debts to the religious councils within two
weeks.
The issue of the rabbonim and mikveh workers was also raised
at the cabinet meeting. According to claims, neither new nor
existing mikvo'os can be operated. The wages for
rabbonim and mikveh workers is provided entirely by
the State. The number of posts have not been updated in the
budget book since 1994.
Therefore approval has not been granted and it has been
infeasible to hire workers to replace those who retired or to
operate new mikvo'os. Therefore it was decided to
update the number of mikveh workers and to increase
budget allocations for salaries to NIS 68 million.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon summed up the lively cabinet
meeting by saying the problem of the mikvo'os should
be solved within a very short period of time. "The
construction of the mikvehs must be completed since
the situation is intolerable," he said. "It is unconscionable
that a rav or mikveh worker is not paid his salary.
Salaries must be provided in an orderly fashion."
At the end of the meeting the ministers unanimously approved
the series of proposals brought before them.
The cabinet also approved a proposal by the Defense Minister
to continue including teacher-soldiers in Chinuch Atzmai and
Maayan Hachinuch HaTorani for another two years despite a
High Court appeal on the matter. The government decided that
since the High Court has not issued an interim order
prohibiting their inclusion in the project these teachers
will continue to serve within these frameworks.
"The government's decisions are good," said MK Rabbi Moshe
Gafni, "but everything depends on the earnestness of their
intentions to carry them out. Presenting the problems and the
attempts to solve them show a sense of seriousness and the
Prime Minister, resolved to solve the crisis, brought the
issue for discussion, but the problem has yet to be solved in
any way until any of the government's decisions are executed
as they promised."
