A crisis in relationships between the Orthodox and Labor wings of the Israel Government has been brewing over the issue of national service for Orthodox girls, the London News Chronicle reported today.
Immediate cause of the crisis, according to the paper, is Premier David Ben Gurion’s insistence on stricter evidence of Orthodoxy in applications for exemption from national service. At present, according to the paper, a girl called for national service can obtain exemption by taking an oath in court and producing two witnesses to say that she strictly observes religious practices.
The conference of the British Agudas Israel organization, which has just concluded here, was warned by H.A. Goodman, political secretary of the World Agudah movement, that the Israel Government coalition was endangered by “deterioration of the Sabbath,” threatened mobilization of religious women for national service and constant “petty persecutions.” He warned that the religious movement would not permit the 30,000 children in its schools in Israel to be “influenced by secular nationalism.”
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