Yitzhak Goldknopf, the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, symbolically resigned from his secondary ministerial position as a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, citing the government’s lack of progress toward passing a bill exempting yeshiva students from military conscription.

The move is hardly material, as Goldknopf retains his position as minister of housing and construction and, as such, remains in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.

Goldknopf’s “resignation” came because of outcry over a video that surfaced Sunday of the Haredi leader dancing to an anti-Zionist, anti-enlistment song at his nephew’s wedding, drawing calls for his ouster by both coalition and opposition politicians. However, the move did not appear to be directly related.

Writing to Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, Goldknopf stated that he had accepted the position in the PMO on the orders of his rabbis as a “guarantee for advancing the law regulating the status of Torah scholars.”

“Last night, the leadership of the United Torah Judaism faction, our teachers and rabbis, met and took upon themselves the responsibility for continuing to advance the issue. In light of this, I return the guarantee and hereby submit my resignation from the position of minister in the Prime Minister’s Office,” he said.

Goldknopf and several other members of his Agudat Yisrael faction........

© The Times of Israel