The opposition on Wednesday was able to defeat a bill seeking to curtail the Chief Rabbinate's powers with respect to the way the chief rabbis are selected.
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The Knesset voted on the legislative proposal ended with a 51-51 tie meaning the bill failed to pass.
The bill, sponsored by Yesh Atid MK Moseh Tur-Paz in coordination with Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana, was introduced as part of the latter's plan to moderate the ultra-Orthodox establishment's control on every single aspect of religious life in Israel.
Among the issues Kahana seeks to reform are the kashrut apparatus and the conversions system, both of which are currently firmly in the grip of the Chief Rabbinate. The Haredi establishment's backlash has been ferocious – to the point where the Israel Security Agency assigned Kahana a security detail following threats to his life.
Tur-Paz presented his bill last week, focusing in changing the composition of the panel that names Israel's chief rabbis, as the terms of both Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau will elapse next year.
The proposal seeks to curb the Chief Rabbinate's power over the panel while increasing that of forces that are more liberal.
Under Israeli law, the assembly that names the chief rabbis includes 150 members, 80 of whom are rabbis and of them, 10 are named by the presiding chief rabbis.
Tur-Paz's bill suggests that the number of members of the assembly will be reduced to 120, and that the chief rabbis be allowed to name only 50 representatives.
Ten members will be elected by the Religious Services Ministry, and the minister will also name six kibbutz rabbis, who are considered more liberal, to the panel; while the heads of 18 religious councils be removed from the assembly.
Tur-Paz further suggests limiting the Chief Rabbinate's power over the process by naming eight lawmakers – not five – to the panel, as well as four ministers: religious services, diaspora affairs, aliyah and absorption, and a fourth to be elected by the government.
Other delegates the bill proposes should take part in the process include the chairman and deputy chair of the Student Union, the head of the Histadrut labor federation, 10 public figures from the fields of education, culture, and philosophy, three representatives of women's organizations, and three representatives of the Committee of University Heads.
Tur-Paz would also like to include the mayors of Israel's 25 largest cities in the panel, as well as the heads of the six largest local council in the country.
The bill underscores the need for female representation in the assembly, and many of its articles include mandatory inclusion of women among the public figures named to it.
Instating such a change to the otherwise rigid process, would reflect the majority of voices and opinions in the Israeli public," he told Israel Hayom.
As the bill failed its preliminary reading it is unclear at this time whether it will be shelved or revised.
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