Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat pledged Sunday to work towards appointing a national religious Chief Rabbi in Israel’s capital city. At a conference held towards that goal in the city council, the mayor said that a national religious rabbi should be appointed along with a haredi-religious one.

“The rabbi will have the responsibility of representing the city and its residents,” Barkat said. “I believe that a national religious rabbi is necessary in a city in which 70 percent of its residents are not haredi.”