British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 923

CHAPTER XXII.

the Central Government and District Commissioners, while for all practical purposes there would come into existence, side by side with the community of the Vaad Leumi, a separate and independent Agudat Israel with all the powers of a community recognized under the Religious Communities (Organisation) Ordinance. For this reason, the alternative proposals did not form u basis of agreement and the discussions were abandoned. It is hoped that a rapprochement may yet be facilitated by means of the gradual increase in the number of special assemblies within local communities; these special assemblies consist of male members only, who are required to confirm in written declarations their positive attitude to the tenets of the Jewish faith. These assemblies elect the rabbinical officers and rabbis of their communities and generally look after ritual matters.

107. It should be noted that the existence of a congregational group outside the officially recognised Jewish community does not involve any limitation in the essentials of internal communal management. A congregation whose members exercise their right to "opt out" of the Jewish community has the right under the Jewish Community Rules to make its own arrangements for its religious organisation, and there is no interference with the religious liberty of its members. The congregation may make its own arrangements for its ritual requirements such as public worship, celebration of marriages, burials, slaughtering of animals and the baking of unleavened bread. Its religious court does not enjoy exclusive jurisdiction in matters of marriage, divorce, alimony and confirmation of wills, as these matters are reserved under the Palestine Order-in-Council, 1922, to the rabbinical courts of the recognised Jewish community : the decisions of its religious court require therefore to be confirmed by the civil courts or by a form of arbitral reference to the Jewish Community courts.

108. Notwithstanding the differences that exist 'between the Agudat Israel and the Vaad Leumi, they are usually in accord in other fields of communal activity where national or external interests are involved, and frequently present a united front in Jewish national affairs. There was, for example, complete agreement between them in the representation of the Jewish case before the international commission which was appointed in 1930 to determine the rights and claims connected with the Wailing Wall. And in regard to immigration the Aguda have arrived at a modus vivendi with the Jewish Agency whereby they obtain for their members a certain proportion of all certificates allocated.

109. In recent years the representatives of the Agudat Israel have pressed for certain particular measures affecting the status

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