Last update - 00:00 28/08/2007
Groups demand more non-Haredi judges in rabbinical court
By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent
Israel's Reform movement, the Tzohar organization of religious Zionist rabbis, and various women's groups are demanding that the selection committee for rabbinical judges - which is slated to appoint 17 new judges Wednesday, increase the number of judges who are not ultra-Orthodox.
The committee is expected to reelect all 15 of the incumbent judges in the running, 12 of whom are ultra-Orthodox. The 17 judges represent nearly a fifth of all rabbinical judges in the country.
The women's groups are planning to hold a rally tomorrow outside the Justice Ministry, where the selection committee headed by Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann will be meeting. Religious Zionist and Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox representatives are trying to get their own people into the two, or possibly three, empty slots. The decision appears to be up to the Shas party, which controls the committee.
Meanwhile, the committee unanimously appointed three rabbinical judges to the Great Rabbinical Court Monday. All the judges - Zion Algarbali of Jerusalem, Menachem Hashai of Haifa, and Zion Boaron of Petah Tikva - currently serve as heads of regional religious courts and are Shas candidates.
The Great Rabbinical Court, headed by Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, is the highest rabbinical appeals court. It hears appeals of rulings from 12 regional courts on family, monetary, inheritance and other issues.
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