Science Minister Daniel Hershkowitz has criticized Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein’s decision to allow municipalities to hire community rabbis who are not orthodox. Non-orthodox movements differ significantly from orthodoxy in their approach to Jewish life.
“Decisions regarding the Jewish nature of the state must not be in the hands of legal advisors and state officials,” Hershkowitz declared at a meeting for Bayit Yehudi party activists. “Just like they cannot decide who has earned an academic degree, so too, they cannot determine who is worthy of the title ‘rabbi.’”
Hershkowitz said he plans to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “and explain how serious the matter is.”