Religion is the victim

Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said some very harsh things in the Knesset about ultra-Orthodox politicians: "If heaven forbid they let you run Haredi education, you will destroy it, because you will be out to hurt one another." Olmert, apparently, did not intend to cast doubt on ultra-Orthodox management skills, only on their ability to rise above factiousness. He explained: "Only a secular Jew like me can give Haredi education what it deserves with integrity, without all the internal disputes."

It is difficult to understand what the prime minister sees as essentially different between Haredi education and religious services to guarantee that the new Religious Services Ministry will not suffer from being managed unilaterally by a single Haredi faction - in this case the Sephardim. We wonder what the prime minister learned in the four days since his hard-hitting speech to make him believe that Shas will be able to administer religious affairs "with integrity, without all of the internal disputes."

The Sharon-Shinui government did the Jewish faith and the religious public a great favor when it dismantled the Religious Affairs Ministry in 2003. It is no coincidence that in the past five years the secular-religious controversy has calmed down, and hatred for religion and the religious has lessened so much. One reason for this was that the Haredi parties distanced themselves from the coalition fleshpots. Even when Shas returned to the government, it moderated (until recently) its demands.

Another reason for the improved attitude toward religion was, without a doubt, the dismantling of the corrupt Religious Affairs Ministry. That ministry had come over the years to be identified with corruption, bogus reports and cronyism, and gave Jewish religion a bad name throughout the land.

Sadly, the ministry's dismantlers did not finish the job. The ministry was taken apart but its departments were not. The religious councils were not incorporated into local authorities, and the department in charge of yeshivas remained intact at the Education Ministry. The result is that the Religious Affairs Ministry can be resurrected from its ashes at any moment.

True, it is not reasonable for Olmert to continue signing off personally on every religious council appointment and every decision concerning burial matters. And it is true that there is not much difference in the extent of the powers granted to the Religious Services Authority and the new Religious Services Ministry. But there is grave concern that without the supervision of the Prime Minister's Office, political appointments will multiply once more and the demon of budgets for confidants will be on the loose again.

An even tougher problem is breaking through the psychological barrier of reestablishing the Religious Affairs Ministry. From here it's a short journey to returning the yeshivas department and Jewish culture division and reviving the old Religious Affairs Ministry.

Olmert has a long history of buying the support of Haredi parties. But he was supposed to realize that the Religious Affairs Ministry, its ruins branded with the mark of Cain, is taboo. There must be a limit to what he is prepared to do to bolster the coalition in preparation for the Winograd Report. And it is also important to remember that the prime victim of the new ministry will be once again the Jewish faith, whose image in the Jewish state will deteriorate once more.