By AVI MACHLIS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
September 12, 2000
JERUSALEM-The decision by Israel's government this week to dismantle the Ministry
of Religious Affairs could promote pluralism by making the delivery of religious
services more locally accountable.
The ministry is an institution that has been notorious for overpoliticization.
But it remains to be seen whether the end of the ministry-possibly in one month-will
make a big impact on religion-state relations in Israel, or on the quest for
equality in religious services by Israel's non-Orthodox movements.
At the Cabinet meeting in which it was decided to dismantle the ministry, Ehud
Barak, Israel's prime minister, said the decision was not intended as a blow
to the Orthodox parties that have controlled the ministry in the past.
The services and funding of yeshivas that used to flow through the ministry
will now be transferred to other ministries and local municipalities.
Shaul Yahalom, a Knesset member from the National Religious Party, said he did
not expect any "big changes" from the move. "We must differentiate
between the dismantling of the ministry and maintaining religious services in
Israel," said Yahalom. "If the services will be transferred to other
offices and municipal religious councils will be kept intact, there should be
no problem."
Supervised by the Religious Affairs Ministry, the local religious councils have
jurisdiction-including the allocation of public funds-over issues relating to
marriage, kashrut, burial and other religious matters for Jews living in Israel.
But Rabbi Uri Regev, director of the Reform movement's Israel Religious Action
Center, said he believed that in the long term, the decision would pave the
way to more accountability-and therefore more pluralism in Israel.
"It could form the basis for greater pluralistic application of religious
services," he said, "because municipal government is more diversified
both in terms of its policies and the democratic composition."
