An agreement for full liaison and cooperation on religious matters, ending a long-standing rift between the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Israel Rabbinate, was achieved today at a meeting between Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim and Rabbi Jacob M. Toledano, the Minister of Religious Affairs.
Under the agreement Rabbi Toledano will resume his seat in the Religious Council of which he was a member before taking his Cabinet post over the protests of the rabbis. The meeting between the two rabbinical leaders was the first since the start of the “Who is a Jew” crisis a year ago.
Rabbi Toledano agreed to solicit the views of the Chief Rabbinate on all religious issues brought before the Government or initiated by it. He also agreed to support the Israel rabbinate as the exclusive authority on a pending kashrut fraud bill. Government sponsors of the measure made a point of excluding the rabbinate from the bill.
On the unresolved “Who is a Jew” issue, Rabbi Toledano agreed to back the opposition of the Israel rabbinate against any new regulations, such as those proposed by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion but held in abeyance while the Prime: Minister polled Jewish scholars throughout the world for their advice.
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