MK Maccabeus Reveals Personal Ties to Deputy Legal Advisor During Torah Study Law Debate

During a heated session in the Knesset Constitution Committee on the Basic Law proposal regarding Torah study, MK Uri Maklev, chairman of the United Torah Judaism faction, unexpectedly paused the legal debate to share a personal revelation about Avital Sompolinsky, the Deputy Legal Advisor to the Government. The discussion, typically tense due to opposing views between Haredi party representatives and the Government Legal Advisor's office, briefly shifted focus when Maklev disclosed that Sompolinsky's uncles are prominent rabbis with whom he had studied in yeshiva, highlighting her family's deep roots in the Torah world.

Earlier in the session, Sompolinsky emphasized that the law's focus is not on Torah study itself but on its implications for the labor market, stating, "The law is about whether a man works or does not work." Maklev's comment brought smiles and eased the tension in the room, with some members jokingly questioning his diversion of the debate. Sompolinsky herself responded with a smile.

The Sompolinsky family is well-known in the Lithuanian Haredi community in Jerusalem. Avital's father, Professor Chaim Sompolinsky, is a leading neuroscientist affiliated with the Hebrew University and Harvard, who was raised in a Haredi household. Her grandfather, Rabbi Eliyahu David Sompolinsky, was a respected Torah figure, and other family members serve as rabbis and Torah scholars in prominent yeshivas.

This moment of personal connection underscored the complex social fabric of Israeli society amid one of its most sensitive public debates. The Basic Law proposal on Torah study, which seeks to enshrine Torah study as a fundamental value, recently passed its first reading in the Knesset but has faced strong opposition from the Government Legal Advisor's office. Maklev has previously clashed with the Government Legal Advisor, Gali Baharav-Miara, over issues related to the Haredi community and conscription laws.