What do govts opening shots on religious issues mean for the future?
Shas leader MK Arye Deri called him wicked, Shas MK Michael Malkieli said he had the values of the jungle, United Torah Judaism chairman Moshe Gafni called him evil, and UTJ MK Meir Porush simply called him Godless. Libermans offense was to have revoked child care subsidies for 18,000 families in which the father studies full time in yeshiva. Under the terms of the new framework, men will have to work for 24 hours a week in order to claim such such benefits, worth up to NIS 1,200, a significant figure for the limited means of ultra-Orthodox households. The purpose of the measure is to reverse a situation in which ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students are subsidized to not join the workforce, which has led to a situation in which just 53 percent of ultra-Orthodox men were employed in 2019, compared to more than 85% of other men. cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });  if(window.location.pathname.indexOf("656089") != -1){console.log("hedva connatix");document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";}  In a separate step, Religious Services Minister Matan Kahanas office said that he intends enact term limits of maximum 10 years for municipal chief rabbis, after which they could stand for reelection. The idea is to keep such rabbis accountable and relevant to their residents and reduce the likelihood of them adopting extreme positions of Jewish law, and speaking and acting in a manner incommensurate with the character of their cities, as numerous municipal chief rabbis have. This development received less attention from the ultra-Orthodox parties, although Porush found the time to accuse Kahana of seeking to crassly destroy the Chief Rabbinate.  The new government is very unusual in many ways, but one of them is that it does include any of the ultra-Orthodox parties, something Liberman himself greatly desired. And given the absence of Shas and UTJ, several parties in the coalition set out in their coalition agreements to make changes both to religious life in Israel, and the countrys relationship with its ultra-Orthodox sector. This week, two of the first shots in those efforts were fired by Liberman and Kahana. And both ministers have several other policy priorities in these fields to advance as well. Kahana and his Yamina party set out in their coalition agreement with Yesh Atid initiatives specifically to reform religious life in the Jewish state, in line with the moderate brand of religious-Zionist Judaism he extols. These include decentralizing the kashrut supervision market; decentralizing conversion; and changing the electoral body for selecting chief rabbis. The idea here is not to separate religion and state as secularists would like, but to give greater choice and freedom for Israeli citizens when making choices regarding religious life. Liberman, in the coalition agreements signed by Yisrael Beytenu and Yesh Atid, gave greater focus to reforms to the states relationship with the ultra-Orthodox. These included stipulations to ensure all pupils study core curriculum subjects such as Maths, Science, and English in school, meaning specifically ultra-Orthodox pupils, and a commitment to pass a law to have greater numbers of ultra-Orthodox men enlist for military service. Libermans priorities are in large part connected to his fierce anti-haredi election campaigns and the promises he made to his voter base to end ultra-Orthodox privileges he and his voters believe come at their expense. His voters will certainly be expecting him to follow through, and Liberman will not want to disappoint them. Also on Libermans bucket list is a series religion and state issues, including enacting civil marriage, enacting public transport on Shabbat, allowing for greater commerce on Shabbat, and implementing the Western Wall agreement. It is important to note that coalition guidelines state that only religion and state issues for which there is a broad public consensus will be advanced, while the agreement between Yesh Atid and Yamina states explicitly that the status quo on such issues will be preserved, other than those spelled out in that specific agreement. Since the Yesh Atid - Yamina agreement overrides the others, that means that much of Libermans agenda is in doubt since Yamina has not specifically agreed to it. Civil marriage, public transport on Shabbat, and greater commerce on Shabbat, are all highly sensitive issues and it remains doubtful whether sweeping legislative reform will transpire on those issues in this government. What will be easier to achieve is reforms requiring merely administrative and regulatory change within government ministries which ministers themselves are able to carry out. One such example is the changes to child-care subsidies Liberman announced this week. Another is the term limits which Kahana wants to institute for municipal chief rabbis. Both measures would have a significant impact, and crucially both can be done by ministerial administrative changes, which do not require the messy and difficult process of legislation, which the current government with its minute minority is already struggling with. Libermans desire to have all ultra-Orthodox boys study core curriculum subjects is without doubt crucial to Israels economic viability in the future, but requiring ultra-Orthodox schools to teach these subjects would be difficult and cause great social unrest. An independent ultra-Orthodox school system is seen as absolutely inviolable by the communitys rabbinic leadership, since it constitutes the principle formative device for ultra-Orthodox identity for every generation. Attempting to force change on it from the top down would likely lead to massive protests and likely cause even the moderate elements of the community to rally around their leadership. As some modern ultra-Orthodox activists suggested just on Thursday, it would be easier and likely more effective to provide increased funds for the relatively new state ultra-Orthodox school network than try and impose a curriculum on the independent ultra-Orthodox school networks. One issue the coalition will be forced to address is to legislate a new law for ultra-Orthodox enlistment, since the High Court struck down the legal arrangement for blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students back in 2017, and is growing impatient with the ongoing deadline extension requests that have been requested of it of the last three governments, including the new one. Here there is legislation ready and waiting having been drawn up by a committee appointed by Liberman when he was defense minister in the 2015 - 2018 Netanyahu government, which most of the coalition appears to agree upon. Experts are sceptical that this legislation will actually be affective in increasing ultra-Orthodox enlistment, since the economic sanctions it stipulates are too moderate, and the lowering of the age of exemption will severely decrease the motivation of young ultra-Orthodox men to enlist. The government will however be grateful to simply get this explosive issue behind it with as little fuss as possible, at least until the High Court weighs in on whatever legislation it manages to pass. The measures on religious life, although requiring legislation to enact, would appear to be relatively consensual within the coalition and may not be especially difficult to enact. The majority of the public sees the Chief Rabbinate as corrupt and unrepresentative of the general Jewish population, so legislation to make kashrut supervision less corrupt and more competitive will not face much opposition in the coalition. The same can be said for legislation to change the electoral body for chief rabbis to ensure non-ultra-Orthodox figures are selected, with the overwhelming majority of the coalition favoring such a move. The issue of conversion reform is more sensitive and the ultra-Orthodox parties can be relied on to ferociously oppose it, including enlisting the support of conservative religious-Zionist rabbis who will bring pressure to bear on the more religiously conservative MKs in the coalition, especially Yamina. Still, it is possible that this reform could be pushed through. Ultimately, the changes the coalition has indicated it wishes to make on religious life for the general public are relatively moderate and obtainable. The ultra-Orthodox parties, and the religiously conservative Religious Zionist Party will make a big public row about them, but will most likely end up living with these measures and not take matters beyond that. Change to the relationship between the country and the ultra-Orthodox community is far harder and cannot simply be addressed by waving a legislative wand. The state over the last 40 years has fundamentally failed in the realms of ultra-Orthodox military service and general education, while at the same time allowed a high degree of autonomy within the sector which is now extremely difficult to roll back. Attempting to force change in a quick manner could lead to protests on the streets and play into the hands of the extremists, who will argue that their claim the state wants to destroy religion and wipe out haredi Jewry were right all along. Change can only come about on those issues through a strategic, holistic and well planned approach which this government has not yet indicated it is interested in pursuing. With a great wailing and gnashing of teeth, the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox political parties and their MKs lined up this week to denounce Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman as the latest in a long line of tyrants who oppressed the Jewish people.