Jerusalem Post Says Chief Rabbinate Must Go

“The time has come to do away with the Chief Rabbinate. This is the only conclusion any clear-headed observer, concerned about the way Judaism is being represented in the public domain, can draw,” a Jerusalem Post leader read on 28 March. “It has become nothing more than a source of jobs for haredi [ultra-Orthodox] rabbis alienated from the taxpayers paying their salaries.”

I second that. It is ridiculous that a mistake of early Zionism still holds Judaism in its grip. There are now three vibrant movements within Judaism, all of which are legitimate to millions of Jews. But in Israel, an increasingly dogmatic group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis have taken upon themselves to define who is a Jew and what religious practice is halachically correct. A good way to end the tedious debate over the legitimacy of conversions and rabbi ordinations would be to separate all religious institutions from the State of Israel. The secular state needs to make its own definition of who and what is Jewish and not let these issues be dictated by one religious group.