At a meeting of Religious-Zionist school principals in Eilat, Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana addressed recent attacks against him on the subject of the reforms he is spearheading in the areas of kosher supervision and conversion, and criticized what he called a tendency to extremism in some parts of the Religious-Zionist community.
“There are those who are opposed to what I’m doing, and there are those who support it,” he said. “Life and politics are not things you can mold to your liking – we have to deal with the situation as we find it. We established this government, and I was chosen to be the minister in charge of Religious Affairs, and I am now advancing an agenda that most of the Religious-Zionist public believes is the right one,” he claimed.
Kahana added, “The things I’m doing could not have been done in any other political setting – there’s no way these things would have happened if we were in a coalition together with the haredim or the hardalim [more conservative Religious-Zionists -ed.]. I love the hardalim,” he continued, “but we disagree on many things.”
Kahana then went on the attack, saying, “What’s happening today in Religious Zionism is very distressing – we’re adopting the worst aspects of the haredi community. A terrible thing occurred this week at a meeting attended by Religious-Zionist rabbis, when the Chief Rabbi – someone whom I respect – got up and insulted our community, and no one spoke up in protest.
“We’re drafting the conversion law with constant input from Rabbi Druckman,” he claimed further. “Who are these ‘minor rabbis’ who are supposedly confusing me? This tendency to extremism in the Religious-Zionist community is having a terrible impact on the Jewish people. We have to stop this divisive discourse. These people like to talk about unity, but they are creating a schism within the Jewish people,” he asserted.
Addressing the various points of view held within the Religious-Zionist community, Kahana said, “I am confident that I represent a lot of people within the knitted-kippah community. We have substantive differences within our sector – political, Torah-based, etc. – and that’s fine. But we need to know how to conduct ourselves. If we’ve reached a situation where Religious-Zionist rabbis can listen to the Chief Rabbi insulting respected rabbis and they remain silent, that’s awful.”
Responding to Kahana’s speech was Oren Henig, director of the Liba Center, who issued a statement saying, “We cannot deny the truth, and that is – that at a historic meeting of rabbis that took place in Jerusalem this week, attended by hundreds of hesder yeshiva deans, rabbis, and dayanim from all across the spectrum of Religious-Zionism, the unanimous opinion was voiced – a voice which spoke out in protest against the dangerous reforms being promoted by Kahana, out of personal interests, with the aim of destroying the institution of the Chief Rabbinate which Maran Harav Kook himself founded.”