The political establishment is reacting to Israel Hayom's publication that Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu demanded that his father, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, be appointed Rabbi of Jerusalem in return for Otzma Yehudit's opposition to a change in the process of electing city rabbis.
MK Yoav Segalowitz (Yesh Atid) tweeted in response to the publication that "the publication of a deal between Otzma Yehudit and Shas is worrisome and highlights the need to hold elections for the Chief Rabbinate on time."
Just yesterday, I raised the issue of appointing chief rabbis in a discussion of the Constitution Committee, when the concern arose about "deals" in this context and other contexts, and I emphasized that the chief rabbis are also presidents of the Great Rabbinical Court, and there must be no bias in such honorable and important positions.
The publication of a deal between Otzma Yehudit and Shas is worrying and sharpens... https://t.co/q50vdTrmTF
— Yoav Segalovitz (@YSegalovitz) June 26, 2023
MK Yulia Melanovsky (Yisrael Beiteinu) tweeted that "we must put an end to all this policy of combines and all these non-kosher practices," adding that "because of such things, the Chief Rabbinate and the rabbis of the cities have earned a bad reputation."
Amichai Eliyahu at the start of the Cabinet meeting (Archive) // Bentzi Rubin
Daniel Goldman, founder of the Institute for the Study of Judaism and Zionism, said that "the pervasive culture whereby important decisions on religious issues, such as the election of a chief rabbi or a city rabbi, are made during dubious political transactions, using political power, is an unacceptable and despicable culture that casts a stain on the Jewish religion and the kippah-wearing public and even distances the general public from the world of Judaism." Goldman added that "elected officials would do well to accept the true values of the Jewish religion and stick to them, instead of acting like the last traders in the market."
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