Ministry of Religious Services
Israeli ministry
The Ministry of Religious Services (Hebrew: המשרד לשירותי דת, romanized: HaMisrad leSherutay Dat), formerly the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Ministry of Religions, is a government ministry of Israel that handles Jewish and other religious affairs.
Responsibilities
The Ministry of Religious Services appoints religious councils, and covers 40% of the shortfall in approved budgets for religious facilities and services; grants financial assistance to religious schools and yeshivas; plans, and finances, the construction and renovation of synagogues and ritual baths; supervises holy places; organizes Torah teaching activities and outreach; organizes public religious celebrations; cultivates religious ties with Diaspora Jewry; certifies kashrut in public and government institutions; coordinates religious services of non-Jewish groups in Israel; plans supplementary religious education for under-privileged youth; provides Jewish ritual articles to new immigrants, schools, and the needy; and provides budgets for the Chief Rabbinate and rabbinical courts.
History
The Ministry was included in the provisional government, and was initially known as the Ministry of Religions and War Victims. Upon the formation of the second government on 8 October 1951 it became the Ministry of Religions. On 5 August 1981 it was renamed the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
In 2003, the Ministry of Religious Affairs was abolished. Its departments were split between other ministries while the newly-established National Authority for Religious Services within the Prime Minister's Office took its place. The Prime Mnister's Office was also placed in charge of executing several laws which mentioned the ministry. Between 2006 and 2008, Yitzhak Cohen served as a minister in the Prime Minister's Office, and was responsible for Religious Services. The ministry was re-established in 2008 as the Ministry of Religious Services.
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