Israel’s two chief rabbis have come under heavy fire from various non-religious and legal sources for their alleged interference with the judicial process in the broadening investigation of Religious Affairs Minister Aharon Abu Hotzeira and senior officials of his ministry who have been accused of financial misconduct. They were also rebuked, indirectly, by Justice Minister Moshe Nissim, himself an Orthodox Jew.
Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovodia Yosef raised the storm of protest when each asserted, in separate press interviews last week, that the institution of state’s evidence was contrary to halacha, Jewish religious law. Their statements were seen as an attempt to prevent a key prosecution witness, Deputy Mayor Yisrael Gottlieb of Bnei Brak, from testifying against Moshe Gabbai, a top aide to Abu Hatzeiro who was arrested last week and remanded in custody by a Tel Aviv district court.
Gottlieb had agreed to testify for the State in order to avoid possible criminal proceedings against himself. He was quoted by one newspaper as saying that “if the rabbis say I mustn’t talk then I won’t talk. ” But other newspapers reported that he has refused to commit himself unequivocally.
Goren and Yosef have rejected the charge of deliberate meddling in the case. They insisted that they were duty-bound to pronounce the halochic position when reporters asked them about it. They are strongly backed by the National Religious Party of which Abu Hatzeira is a member and which, allegedly, received misappropriated funds.
STATEMENT OF NISSIM
The most significant, albeit oblique attack on the chief rabbis was delivered by Nissim. An official statement released before Yom Kippur by the Justice Minister’s office noted that “The Minister takes a serious view of any public statement that could have the effect of influencing the course of a police investigation or the considerations of the prosecutor. The decision whether to make use of a state’s witness must be taken solely an the merits…and without interference by extraneous officials or other parties,” especially when “such interference comes in the midst of an investigation.”
The statement noted that the device of state’s evidence is used all over the world and has been used — sparingly — in Israel since the inception of the State.
REACTION BY REFORM ZIONISTS
(In New York last week, Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn, president of ARZA-Association of Reform Zionists of America, released a statement demanding a thorough investigation of the Abu Hatzeira affair and accused the two chief rabbis of a “shameful attempt.. to block the judicial process through the cynical application of halachic minutiae.” Gittelsohn observed: “When Jewish law is misused to shield people in high places and to protect the vested interests of Israel’s political-religious establishment, the Jewish tradition is perverted by those who claim to be its champions.”)
FRICTION BETWEEN RELIGIOUS, SECULAR ELEMENTS
The latest development in the Abu Hatzeira case has intensified the always present friction between the secular and religious elements in Israeli society. The secular parties — Labor, Mapam, the Citizens Rights Movement and others — have decried the chief rabbis’ intervention with varying degrees of intensity. The NRP has lined up behind the chief rabbis. Its Knesset faction chairman, Yehuda Ben Meir, declared last week that the NRP and all Orthodox Jewry backed the right of the chief rabbis to speak out on halachic issues at any time.
Another potentially explosive element was added to the conflict when the Sephardic community rallied behind Abu Hotzeira, charging that he was being scapegoated by the Ashkenazic establishment which dominates Israeli politics. Sephardic Jews outnumber Ashkenazim in Israel’s ethnic mix but feel they are under-represented in political affairs.
Abu Hatzeira is of Moroccan origin and his father, Rabbi Yoacov Abu Hatzeira, was the spiritual leader of Moroccan Jewry. About 1000 supporters of the Religious Affairs Minister paroded in Jerusalem today carrying the Minister on their shoulders, waving garlands of flowers and singing traditional songs. They angrily charged that Abu Hatzeiro was being tried by the press and that the entire matter reflected the anti-Moroccan attitude of the authorities.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
