Ministry of Religious Services

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Ministry of Religious Services (HaMisrad leSherutay Dat)

The Ministry of Religious Services is an Israeli government ministry that handles Jewish and other religious affairs. It appoints religious councils and helps fund religious facilities and services.

Key activities
- Provides financial support for religious facilities and services, covering about 40% of shortfalls.
- Grants financial aid to religious schools and yeshivas.
- Plans and funds the building and renovation of synagogues and ritual baths; supervises holy places.
- Organizes Torah teaching, outreach, and public religious celebrations.
- Maintains ties with Diaspora Jewry; certifies kashrut in public and government institutions.
- Coordinates religious services for non-Jewish groups in Israel.
- Plans additional religious education for under-privileged youth.
- Provides Jewish ritual articles to new immigrants, schools, and the needy.
- Budgets for the Chief Rabbinate and rabbinical courts.

Leadership and history
- The minister is the political head of the ministry and a relatively small cabinet post.
- The ministry was formed in 1949, went through name changes, was dissolved in 2003, and revived in 2008.
- Former names include Minister of Religions and War Victims (initial), Minister of Religions (1951), and Minister of Religious Affairs (1981).
- Zerach Warhaftig was the longest-serving minister (1961–1974). Haim Yosef Zadok, a secular Jew, served in 1974 and 1977.
- In Netanyahu’s governments, the post changed hands six times among four people (Netanyahu three times and Eli Suissa twice).