Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef (r.) with Chief Rabbi David Lau
Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef (r.) with Chief Rabbi David LauYonatan Sindel/Flash90

Over two thousand teens from the National-Religious sector are expected to turn out next Sunday for a protest march, calling for the government to preserve the status of the Chief Rabbinate in light of policy changes that marginalize the Rabbinate's influence in kosher supervision and conversions, as well as plans to alter the arrangements for prayer at the Kotel Hama'aravi (Western Wall).

The march is planned to commence at eleven o'clock in the morning, leaving from the headquarters of the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem, after the Chief Rabbis, Rabbi David Lau and Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, address the participants.

From there it will proceed to the Prime Minister's Office, arriving at around the same time as the weekly cabinet meeting.

Signing the proclamation calling for people to participate were: Rabbi Dov Lior (the rabbi of Kiryat Arba-Hebron), Rabbi Tzvi Yisrael Tau (the head of the Har Hamor yeshiva), Rabbi Yaakov Ariel (former chief rabbi of Ramat Gan), Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu (the chief rabbi of Tzfat), and Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira (the dean of the Ramat Gan yeshiva).

Writing on a Yamina party Whatsapp group, Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana addressed the question posed by another member as to whether schools could send their students to participate.

"My friends, I don't know whether it's allowed or not from the perspective of the Education Ministry, but participation is the best possible way to exercise one's citizenship rights. There's no problem at all in protesting against my policies," he wrote.