Judah Ari Gross is the religion and diaspora affairs correspondent for The Times of Israel.
Barring an unforeseen turn of events, for the first time in Israel’s history, the government will be composed primarily of devout parties, with 33 seats in the projected 64-member coalition for the Religious Zionism Party, Shas and United Torah Judaism, two more than the Likud.
This is expected to have major implications for the problems of faith and state in Israel, as each of those parties has already drawn up plans to oppose the reforms implemented by the outgoing government and institute new ones to Orthodox control over devout living. . In Israel.
But even though those devout parties represent the majority of the government, they will be limited by the liberal — in the classical sense — and secular parts of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, which will remain the largest party in the coalition.
Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz, director of the Center for Shared Society at the Israel Democracy Institute, noted that this is a new position for the Likud because the party is more classic on devout issues and has long served in coalitions with Haredi parties and supported their policies.
“Never before has there been a Likud-Haredi government that has not had a moderating force: the Yisrael Beytenu, Kulanu, Blue and White, Labor party, there has been someone who has compensated things. Now there are none. But Likud has a combination of people, there are secularists and traditionalists. I don’t think they’re going to replace the prestige quo that quickly,” he said.
“We have reached the absurdity that Likud is going to be the moderating party,” said Ravitsky Tur-Paz, who is married to Moshe Tur-Paz, a member of the Yesh Atid party, who will now enter the opposition.
One of the main forces in mitigating devout coercion in Israel has been the judicial system, which overturned the law and allowed for more liberal interpretations of existing laws. Every party in the alleged incoming coalition spoke of the need to drastically reduce judicial powers and save your judicial intervention.
Rabbi Seth Farber, head of the Orthodox rights organization for the devotees Itim, said it could have a profound effect on the problems of the state-religion in the future, cutting off one of the tactics Israelis have relied on to devout freedom.
“One of the things that made it imaginable to control the issues of faith and state, however confusing, was the strength of the courts. But there is now a foresight concern that the strength of the courts will be reduced. This is a cause for concern,” he said.
Tani Frank, director of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Center for Judaism and State Policy and a longtime activist on religion and state issues, believes those parties are likely to be restricted to some extent for fear of trying their luck and taking on an audience. reaction.
“They know that whatever they do will rightly be seen as a step toward devout coercion. And other people have had enough,” Frank said.
Although the leader of the devout Zionist party, Bezalel Smotrich, called Israel a “halachic state,” that is, a state governed by halacha or Jewish law, Frank said this is unlikely to happen, or at least more than one. of what Israel already is.
“I found myself having to remind other people that we already live in a ‘halachic state’ situation,” Frank said with a dry laugh. “But I don’t think we’re going to live in a complete ‘halachic state. ‘I don’t think there’s a ban on other LGBT people appearing in public. “
But, he stressed, this does not mean that there will be no significant adjustments on religion-state issues, adding the rollback of LGBT rights, especially since the explicitly homophobic component of Noam, which is part of the devout Zionist list, is now on the list. on the verge of being in the coalition. But, Frank said, fears of a radical overnight transformation of Israel into a natural theocracy would possibly be exaggerated.
According to Frank, this is not necessarily due to a lack of will but to a political limitation. Even with the majority those parties have, passing an invoice requires some political capital and there are other issues they would rather spend their money on. Capital in coalition negotiations.
For haredi parties, those priorities will come with giving more money to men who read in devout institutions, employment situations for childcare subsidies, ending much-maligned taxes on cutlery and disposable plates, and suspending a reform proposal to build a kosher festival. “Telephone service providers.
“But anything that doesn’t require law will have a lot to change,” he said.
The next fitness minister, for example, can easily override current Health Secretary Nitzan Horowitz’s resolution to ban conversion cure, a pseudoscientific remedy for changing a person’s sexual orientation, which has proven futile and increases the likelihood of suicide, or its resolution to allow gay men to donate blood.
At the most sensible moment of the legislative timeline will be the reversal, at least in part, of the previous administration’s reforms on how restaurants and food brands qualify as kosher.
The reform, which was passed last November, would allow personal kosher certification agencies, replacing the existing formula in which only the rabbinate, through municipal rabbis, can officially run a kosher food business. Although some initial facets of the reform came into force in January, major privatization is not expected to begin until January 1, 2023.
This effort was denounced from the beginning by Israel’s ultra-Orthodox or haredi parties, who claimed that it would lead to a lowering of kashrut standards. However, many noted that opposition to the reform reduced the strength of the Chief Rabbinate and cut the salaries of kashrut supervisors. which are predominantly haredi.
While it’s possible that some of the more technical facets of reform will remain in place, facets of privatization will most likely be canceled out, retaining strength only at the realm of the chief rabbinate, Frank said.
Overall, Frank said this so-called coalition would likely focus on strengthening the Chief Rabbinate, enshrining existing powers in law and giving it more powers, such as allowing rabbinical courts to deal with financial disputes, which ultimately only civil courts can do.
“They will make sure to save you the next Matan Kahana,” Frank said, referring to the devoted former minister, who led many of the outgoing government’s devout reforms.
“And strengthening the leader’s rabbinate is something that no one in this coalition would oppose,” he said.
Ravitsky Tur-Paz said that in the first months of the next government’s administration, he will most likely seek to appease his base by publicly canceling, and in some cases free of charge, everything done through the previous coalition.
However, she said, after this initial era of “demonstrating victory and getting things done” only because “she and other activists and researchers on the issues of religion and the state” will start having conversations and making compromises.
But in addition to the things that devout parties actively seek to do, there are also many trends underway in the outgoing government, which are likely to stop, especially those related to women.
Kahana, for example, pushed for the appointment of women to positions on local devout councils. Those already in office will remain there, according to Ravitsky Tur-Paz, but there will be no further appointments in that regard in the future.
The long-standing compromise on the Western Wall, which would give official prestige to non-Orthodox denominations in controlling the holy site, has been suspended for years due to opposition from Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox lawmakers. Ravitsky Tur-Paz said that this is the most important thing. It will probably remain the case under the next coalition, unless there is an unforeseen development.
Farber, whose Itim deals in detail with conversion issues and assists Israelis in their interactions with the rabbinate, said he hopes to deal with new problems, but in light of the election results, his organization is taking a “defensive stance. “
“We had elements that we hoped to move forward. We hoped to make Jewish research less invasive and less degrading,” he said, referring to surveys conducted through the rabbinate, among other people from the former Soviet Union, to make sure they are Jewish before they could marry.
“But we’re going to have to put that on hold for now,” he said.
Farber said his organization is already restructuring in reaction to the election, devoting more resources to its legal and public policy departments.
In addition to the issues the government will have to push for just now, this so-called coalition will also preside over the upcoming election of Israel’s leading rabbis next year, while making sure they are hardliners. Although Frank pointed out that this would most likely have been the case even if the outgoing coalition had remained in power.
In addition to the more consensual devout issues that all parties in this supposed government would promote or overthrow without problems, there are several that are more controversial and that the government would struggle to promote.
One such highly controversial issue is Israel’s immigration law, which promises citizenship to at least one Jewish grandparent or one who has switched to Judaism. The first criterion is different from the Orthodox definition of who is Jewish, which requires a user to have a Jewish mother. This disparity has meant that around one million Israelis are not Jewish under Orthodox Jewish law, which is a major source of fear for many devout Israelis, who oppose interfaith marriage.
To solve this problem, the devout Zionist party demands in its program the annulment of the grandparents’ clause, which would particularly affect the number of non-Jewish immigrants.
However, such a move would constitute a major change in Israeli immigration policy and would be strongly rejected by the population of the former Soviet Union country, probably adding Soviet-born Likud party members. Frank said Smotrich would be unlikely to fight when there are other, more urgent things he would like to address.
“[The Law of Return] is the kind of flag that Smotrich will temporarily drop to move forward on other issues,” Frank said.
Another domain that could, though probably not see a major change, is conversion to Judaism.
Needless to say, the reforms that the previous government tried to put in place to allow for a greater party in the realization of conversions, which were fiercely opposed by the devout Zionist and Haredi parties, will pass.
But devout parties, as well as parts of the Likud, also opposed a High Court ruling last year to recognize unorthodox conversions to Judaism for purposes of Israeli citizenship, not devout purposes. A separate ruling last month also identified orthodox conversions. not carried out through the rabbinate for citizenship, adding those made through the Giyur K’Halacha program of Itim.
It is possible that the so-called coalition will simply try to pass a law that only conversions through the Chief Rabbinate would be enough to offload citizenship.
But according to Frank of the Shalom Hartman Institute, it is unlikely to do so because it would alienate more progressive but staunchly orthodox Israelis who project themselves as Giyur K’Halacha, as well as non-Orthodox Diaspora Jews, with whom Israel already has tensions. ties, especially with the expected inclusion of far-right lawmakers in the coalition.
“Even if Netanyahu has the mentality of not caring about Diaspora Jews, he still has to give himself some wiggle room with them. You can’t call [a far-right politician] Itamar Ben Gvir and start passing legislation that hurts the position. of most American Jews,” Frank said.
As things stand, he says, Israel slightly recognizes Reform and Conservative Judaism. Such a resolution would eliminate the little prestige it has.
“There’s a difference between taking food off someone’s plate when they’re having dinner and not giving them food in the first place,” Frank said.
However, Frank said he hopes a law will be passed, even anything relatively symbolic, to increase the Chief Rabbinate’s already monopoly control over conversion approvals.
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