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Selection from: DECISIVE MEETINGS WITH NO MINUTES
by Shahar Ilan, Ha'aretz, Dec. 27, 2004
Reinstating budgets
The budget that in the past most symbolized the allocations to the ultra-Orthodox parties was the budget for Torah culture. This budget mainly financed the activities of two types of bodies. One was the party culture organizations such as El Hamaayan, run by Shas, or Torah V'Yehadut La'am, run by Agudat Yisrael.
The second type was the Jewish enrichment organizations that encouraged people to become religious, such as Arachim. The main purpose for which Torah culture funds were intended was weekly Torah classes, but in practice the employees of these organizations, their program coordinators and even the teachers, acted as a cadre of party activists.
In the past, this budget came from two ministries (religious affairs and education) and from four separate clauses in the state budget. Over the past five years, under the cancellation of duplicate budgeting, imposed by former attorney general Elyakim Rubenstein, all the sums were lumped together in a single Education Ministry budget clause, called Jewish culture.
Two events in the past few weeks illustrate the extent of the damage caused to this budget by the economic plan and the two years in which Shinui has sat in the government.
The first event is the court ruling about two weeks ago in a petition by 15 secular, reform and conservative culture organizations, for the increase in their share of the Jewish culture budget. The petition was filed on their behalf by the Center for Jewish Pluralism of the World Union for Progressive (Reform) Judaism.
The figures disclosed in the ruling show that the budget shrank by more than 50 percent in 2001-2003. Whereas in 2001 Jewish culture budgets stood at NIS 93 million, in 2003 they totaled just NIS 45 million. Although the ultra-Orthodox preserved their share of the budget, about two-thirds, the sums they received fell from NIS 64 million in 2001 to just 31 million in 2003.
The pluralistic and secular cultural associations were hurt even more, with the unification of the budget clauses resulting in their allocations dwindling from NIS 4 million (about 5 percent of the general budget) to about NIS 200,000 (0.5 percent). It is impossible to interpret the court ruling as anything but an almost absolute rejection of the claims of the pluralistic organizations.
In the past they were allocated sums estimated at NIS 2 million, but in the future they will have to make do with a few hundred thousand shekels a year. What pains the pluralistic organizations most is the rejection of their argument that they deserve affirmative action for all the years that only the Orthodox organizations received budgets.
The second event illustrating the distress in the budgets of the Jewish cultural organizations is the conference held last week for representatives of 15 associations that formed an umbrella organization called the Jewish Culture Council. The council includes ultra-Orthodox and national religious organizations, but not Reform or secular ones.
It should be noted that even the rivalry and hostility between the ultra-Orthodox organizations was quite fierce, and apparently only the harsh budget crisis has brought them to a display of impressive unity. The new council's main goal is to cancel the budget cuts and return the budgets to their former levels.
The new Melchior
Anyone who read the questions and answers handled last week by upcoming deputy education minister Michael Melchior on Haaretz's Web site in English would have discovered sharp, clear positions on religious matters, uncharacteristic of Melchior until now.
Although Melchior stressed that he "believes that marriage, conversion, etc., should be conducted according to halakha (Jewish law)," he stated that these are matters for the synagogue and not the Knesset. He noted that Knesset members are not elected to arbitrate Jewish law.
"The Knesset should decide who is an Israeli, not who is a Jew," continued Melchior, "and in this we should respect the fact that the overwhelming majority of Jewish communities are not Orthodox and they have a different interpretation of halakha from ours."
"Israel should recognize conversions by the non-Orthodox communities both inside and outside Israel," said Melchior. "Equal budgetary support should similarly be granted to religious institutions of all streams [of Judaism]."
In a conversation with Melchior following the publication of his answers on Haaretz's site, Melchior was not thrilled with the paper's intention to translate what he had said into Hebrew ("Better that it appear only in English").
To his credit, however, it should be said that he also refrained from saying things like, "I was quoted out of context," and "I was misunderstood," which are often voiced by politicians in uncomfortable moments. On the contrary, Melchior repeated what he had said and even expanded on the comments.
"Reform and Conservative converts should be recognized for all state-related matters, including the Law of Return," said Melchior. "To say that conversion not done according to halakha will not be accepted is wrong, unjust and causes an insufferable rift with world Jewry."
Melchior said his objection to religious legislation also applies to the rabbinic courts (marriage and divorce).
"I am in favor of civil marriage in the proposed method for registering couples," said Melchior. "We proposed this in Meimad seven years ago."
A source close to Melchior explained that he has not changed his positions, but is now prepared to express them openly. A possible reason for this is the fact that he is now working with a new social movement - Tnufa - alongside secular Jews and Reform rabbi Gilad Kariv. Melchior himself claims that he has said these things "in one form or another" in the past.
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