Q&A: Funding Religious Services
Funding Religious Services
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Do you think the state should fund religious services (synagogues, kashrut, etc.)? Or should that be done with private money?
Answer
That’s a difficult question. I would be happy if it did not, but if so there is an injustice in the opposite direction, since it funds culture and sports and other needs such as housing, so why should the share of the religious and Haredi public be diminished? So either you separate culture and religion from the state, or you don’t.
It is true that what the state funds should serve the general public and not be determined by the criteria of one particular sector. For example, the Western Wall plaza (for Reform Jews and women putting on tefillin and the like), use of mikva’ot (unmarried women immersing), and more.