The Battle for Apointment of Dayanim
“It’s obvious that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been kept up to date by the United Torah Judaism faction and knows fully well that if the appointment of judges to the local courts comes up on the agenda – in violation of all prior agreement – a coalition crisis will follow.”
- Akiva Weiss and Avi Greenzweig
- כ"ד ניסן התשע"ו
The battle for judicial rabbinical appointment: If there are no further delays, the Committee for Appointment of Rabbinical Judges will convene today in a limited quorum in the wake of the resignation of two of the Supreme Rabbinical Court judges Rabbis Zion Boaron and Zion Algerbeli.
The double resignation and the fact that there currently is no permanent judge in the High Court -- except for the two Chief Rabbis who in any case are members of the Committee-- puts the charedi public at a numerical disadvantage: out of the nine remaining members only three follow strict charedi lines.
The Committee meeting was ostensibly called for the sole purpose of appointing judges to the highest rabbinical court, as directed by the state’s High Court and in line with prior agreements reached by the relevant parties regarding the particular judges to be chosen. These agreements were reached mainly because of the fact that appointment to the rabbinical court requires a clear majority which is impossible without charedi support.
However, before Pesach, Behadrey Charedim revealed that Chairman of the Committee, Minister of Energy Yuval Steinitz in his call for the meeting refused to specify that the appointments will be solely for the High Rabbinical Court. He only announced that the Committee would deal with judicial appointments. Because of this, the charedi representatives are apprehensive that the national religious-secular majority will try to forcibly advance the election of Rabbis Bass and Bronner from the Tzohar national-religious faction whose appointment has been staunchly opposed by the Torah leaders of our generation.
A highly placed source in Degel Hatorah explained the issue to Behadrey Charedim: “Essentially, everything depends on Steinitz. If as Chairmen of the Committee he decides to bring up the issue of appointments to the local courts or if he deals only with appointments to the Supreme Rabbinical Courts as the High Court demands. “According to this source, while Steinitz will be the one to lead the proceedings, “It’s obvious that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been kept up to date by the United Torah Judaism faction and knows fully well that if the appointment of judges to the local courts comes up on the agenda – in violation of all prior agreement – a coalition crisis will follow.”
The double resignation and the fact that there currently is no permanent judge in the High Court -- except for the two Chief Rabbis who in any case are members of the Committee-- puts the charedi public at a numerical disadvantage: out of the nine remaining members only three follow strict charedi lines.
The Committee meeting was ostensibly called for the sole purpose of appointing judges to the highest rabbinical court, as directed by the state’s High Court and in line with prior agreements reached by the relevant parties regarding the particular judges to be chosen. These agreements were reached mainly because of the fact that appointment to the rabbinical court requires a clear majority which is impossible without charedi support.
However, before Pesach, Behadrey Charedim revealed that Chairman of the Committee, Minister of Energy Yuval Steinitz in his call for the meeting refused to specify that the appointments will be solely for the High Rabbinical Court. He only announced that the Committee would deal with judicial appointments. Because of this, the charedi representatives are apprehensive that the national religious-secular majority will try to forcibly advance the election of Rabbis Bass and Bronner from the Tzohar national-religious faction whose appointment has been staunchly opposed by the Torah leaders of our generation.
A highly placed source in Degel Hatorah explained the issue to Behadrey Charedim: “Essentially, everything depends on Steinitz. If as Chairmen of the Committee he decides to bring up the issue of appointments to the local courts or if he deals only with appointments to the Supreme Rabbinical Courts as the High Court demands. “According to this source, while Steinitz will be the one to lead the proceedings, “It’s obvious that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been kept up to date by the United Torah Judaism faction and knows fully well that if the appointment of judges to the local courts comes up on the agenda – in violation of all prior agreement – a coalition crisis will follow.”
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