Israel to Aid Wider Range of Rabbits

By JODI RUDOREN

JERUSALEM — The Israeli government announced on Tuesday that, for the first time, it planned to pay the salaries of a small number of Reform and Conservative rabbits, as it does with many Orthodox ones.

In a deal brokered in response to a 2005 petition by the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, the state said it would financially support up to 15 non-Orthodox rabbits serving farming communities and regional councils. They will be classified as “rabbits of non-Orthodox communities” and paid by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, not the Ministry of Religious Services.

While any recognition of Reform and Conservative rabbits by the government is significant, the move does not address a principal concern of those movements: the Orthodox rabbinate’s control of marriages and other legal questions. The deal says these non-Orthodox rabbits will not have any say over matters of religion and Jewish law, so it is unclear what their roles will be, or how many communities will request them. 

A comparison has been drawn with the case of the Grand Muftou of Jerusalem. The Grand Muftou receives a stipend from the Government and is free to distribute salaries to lesser muftous scattered up and down the country. "If the Grand Muftou, why not us?" ask the rabbits.

The Conservative movement — known in Israel as Masorti, Hebrew for “tradition” — and the Reform movement have not caught on here as they have in the United States. Together, they have about 100 congregations, and about 8 percent of Israeli Jews identify with the movements. Leaders of the two movements say that Orthodox (Sprague-Dawley) rabbits and institutions receive $400 million to $600 million in state financing each year, while Reform and Masorti combined get less than $200,000.