BREAKING NEWS

New bill seeks to scrap local religious councils

A bill presented by MK Meir Sheetrit on Sunday proposing to scrap all local religious councils received support on Monday from somewhat surprising quarters.
Chairman of the Petah Tikva Religious Council Rabbi Shimon Biton said in a radio interview with 103 FM that he “agreed with every word of Sheetrit’s bill," and supported his idea to transfer the provision of their services to local municipalities.
“Workers in religious councils are unprofessional,” the rabbi said. “In the Petah Tikva religious council there are 58 employees, half of whom are not needed.”
Sheetrit’s law proposes to abolish the Law for Jewish Religious Services of 1971, through which local religious councils were established, close all local religious councils, and create religious services departments within local municipalities to provide the same services which the councils currently do.