The battle for the rabbinate of Jerusalem: After the United Torah Judaism faction's appeal to the High Court this morning, requesting to delay the election process for the city's rabbinate, religious Zionists are responding, asking the High Court to become a party to the petition - and to allow them to respond to United Torah Judaism's claims.
The applicants are: the representative of the Zionist synagogues in Jerusalem, the Nitzanim Baka Synagogue, Eli Kadosh, the Pisgat Moriah Synagogue and Yehuda Freudiger, represented by attorney Ilan Kaminetzky.
Their request is to allow them to respond to a petition filed by the United Torah Judaism faction in Jerusalem against Religious Services Minister Naftali Bennett and his deputy Eli Ben Dahan.
The applicants claim that since they filed a petition with the High Court of Justice in 2012 against the delay in the process of elections for the city's rabbinate, a petition that remains pending until now, following assurances from the Ministry of Religious Affairs that the process is being expedited, they are also a party to the matter, and they must be told why the process is still being delayed.
The letter states: "The only goal of the petitioners (United Torah Judaism – S.R.) is to continue to try to delay the election process for the rabbis of the city of Jerusalem, (as they have done time and again in recent years, and in this regard and for this reason the petition was submitted on behalf of the representatives of the Zionist synagogues in Jerusalem – the original closes, S.R.).
Moreover, in about two months, the only candidate from Religious Zionism in the elections for the rabbis of the city of Jerusalem (Rabbi Aryeh Stern – S.R.) is scheduled to reach the age of 70 and will then be unable to run. And apparently, for this reason, the petitioners are trying, in bad faith, to postpone the elections beyond this date, so that the candidate from Religious Zionism will not be able to run in the elections for the rabbis of the city of Jerusalem, which will again cause delays in the process.".
The petitioners also claim that the upcoming Sabbatical year is another reason for the need to appoint a rabbi for the city.
In light of all this, the petitioners request that they be allowed to respond to the petition filed by United Torah Judaism.
As a reminder, this morning, United Torah Judaism, through its attorney, Attorney Raanan Bar Zohar, submitted an urgent request to the High Court of Justice to issue a temporary order to freeze the process of appointing the minister's representatives to the electorate of the city rabbinate, until the petition they filed about a month ago against the new regulations for appointing the city rabbi is heard.
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