The committee to appoint rabbinic judges, due to convene after the Shavuot holiday on Monday, is meant to appoint six new judges. Barring any last-minute changes, all will be from the ultra-Orthodox sector.
Not that there was a lack of modern Orthodox rabbis out there. Out of 60 candidates, dozens of hesder yeshiva graduates might have been considered were it not for the knitted kippot on their heads.
These candidates represent a national-religious worldview, and are play an important role in the goings-on of Israel society, but they have been excluded by a conspiracy to keep them out of the "higher echelon" of rabbinic power.
Needed: good shakeup
No one denies that the rabbinic establishment in Israel is in desperate need of a good shakeup, not only from a disciplinary standpoint, but also from the standpoint of the halachic policy echoing in its chambers.
Recently, several women with recalcitrant husbands staged a sit-down protest at the rabbinic court, inviting the press and women's rights organizations to their demonstration.
These women have suffered for years, trying to force their former husbands to finally grant the Jewish divorces they need to move on with their lives. But their cases have been stalled by an unresponsive rabbinic establishment.
Any rabbi understands that if the judges were a bit more involved in Israeli society, they would have found a way to rectify this appalling situation.
Give and take
On the current appointments board there is a game of political give and take. And forces are laid out: Out of ten members of the board, four support the appointment of three "Zionist" judges.
Two of them, Knesset Member Nissan Slomiansky (National Religious Party) and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Likud) should be praised for resisting coalition pressure (to veto Zionist judges).
Opposing them are the three haredi representatives trying to claim the whole "pie": MK Eli Yishai, a professional politician, and two members of the rabbinic high court who were elected following a competition in which the two tried to outdo one another by issuing strict interpretations. Of course, they have an interest in finding other judges like them in the halls of power.
Mainly, I object to the chief rabbis who, as previously reported, supported the appointment of six haredi judges.
Instead of serving to unite all the religious forces in Israeli society, the chief rabbis have chosen to allow themselves to become sectoral.
And one must remember, the issue at hand has nothing to do with issues of Jewish law, but rather a concerted attempt of one group to exclude another, and will cause immediate and clear damage to the rabbinate and those who rely on it.
In doing this, they are undermining the rabbinate, to the delight of those who wish it ill.
The cat was let out of the bag during a meeting of women's and other groups with the chief rabbis, in which the grey picture became crystal clear: They are not "chief" rabbis at all.
With regard to the appointments - perhaps especially in this regard – they are subject to louder voices than they have.
By virtue of being the Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Shlomo Metzger, himself a hesder graduate, heads the rabbinic court, despite not being qualified to serve as a judge.
It is odd that he can't find even one of his classmates - who passed their rabbinic exams with honors – appropriate for a judges chair, apparently because of the "wrong" kippa on their heads.
But the most scandalous character of all is the scale-tipper, Minister Haim Ramon, who declared on live TV he would not promote a "knitted kippa" candidate to the judgeship, in light of his political differences with the national-religious world over the issue of disengagement and military refusal.
Ramon's disdain for the "knitted kippa" folks is so deep enough that he is willing to punish them -- even at the expense of chained women.
Following the broadcast, "women" pressure forced Ramon to recant, but as someone beholden to a "deal" with the ultra-Orthodox, he would be willing to "swallow" some national-religious judges, but only if… the panel was expanded from the current construction of six, to make room for the agreed-upon number of haredi judges.
If the current outlook comes to pass, and all, or at least the vast majority, rabbinic courts are made up of a unified, ultra-Orthodox character, I envision alternative rabbinic, more user-friendly courts will arise to ensure these women get Jewish divorces.
The infrastructure for such a thing is already being developed underground, and it will make its way to light under the principle "truth will always come out."
Maybe a little money will also help a this project: There is no reason that a judge need earn 30-40,000 shekels per month. I am willing to bet they will find excellent rabbis to sit on a user-friendly rabbinic court for less than half the price.
Rabbi Yisrael Rosen is head of the "Tzomet" institute in Gush Etzion and the founder of the chief rabbinate's Conversion Authority
