The elections for Israel's new Chief Rabbis which were supposed to be held today will be postponed until at least April 14th by order of Supreme Court Justices Mishael Heshin, Dorit Beinish and Edmond Levy.
The court will also allow excluded candidates who wish to have their name included on the ballot to submit their applications by Monday, April 7.
The two sitting Chief Rabbis, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron complete their ten year terms next Thursday and the positions will remain empty until the new rabbis are chosen. The court had asked to postpone the elections until after Pesach, but were persuaded by the state’s argument that the rabbis had to sell the nation’s hametz and appear at the important state events on Holocaust Memorial Day, IDF Memorial Day, Independence Day and Jerusalem Day which are all quickly coming upon us.
The race for Rishon LeTzion, i.e., the Sephardic Chief Rabbi, is considered to be all but settled, with Rabbi Shlomo Amar, 55, an apparent shoo-in. Former head of the Petach Tikvah rabbinical court and a temporary member of the national rabbinic court, Rabbi Amar's election to head the Tel Aviv Chief Rabbinate one year ago was praised in both religious and municipal circles. He is also a likely candidate to succeed Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef as spiritual leader of the Shas party.
Currently, three candidates are competing for the Ashkenazi position: Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan since 1990, who founded the hesder yeshivah (combining Torah study and army service) in Yamit which has since relocated to N'vei Dekalim; Rabbi Yonah Metzger, who serves as Rabbi of northern Tel Aviv and is favored in many hareidi circles; and Rabbi Shlomo Dichovsky, who declined an offer by Chief Justice Aharon Barak to sit on Israel's Supreme Court.
The election board comprises 150 members, split equally between rabbis and public figures, and as equally between Ashkenazim and Sephardim. The number includes two representatives of the government (Ministers Zevulun Orlev and Gideon Ezra), five MKs (Ben-Lulu (Likud), Peretz (Shas), Gafni (United Torah Judaism), Herzog (Labor), and Yahalom (NRP)), mayors of 25 cities and several large local councils, religious council heads, ten appointees by the Minister of Religious Affairs, and others.
The court will also allow excluded candidates who wish to have their name included on the ballot to submit their applications by Monday, April 7.
The two sitting Chief Rabbis, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron complete their ten year terms next Thursday and the positions will remain empty until the new rabbis are chosen. The court had asked to postpone the elections until after Pesach, but were persuaded by the state’s argument that the rabbis had to sell the nation’s hametz and appear at the important state events on Holocaust Memorial Day, IDF Memorial Day, Independence Day and Jerusalem Day which are all quickly coming upon us.
The race for Rishon LeTzion, i.e., the Sephardic Chief Rabbi, is considered to be all but settled, with Rabbi Shlomo Amar, 55, an apparent shoo-in. Former head of the Petach Tikvah rabbinical court and a temporary member of the national rabbinic court, Rabbi Amar's election to head the Tel Aviv Chief Rabbinate one year ago was praised in both religious and municipal circles. He is also a likely candidate to succeed Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef as spiritual leader of the Shas party.
Currently, three candidates are competing for the Ashkenazi position: Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan since 1990, who founded the hesder yeshivah (combining Torah study and army service) in Yamit which has since relocated to N'vei Dekalim; Rabbi Yonah Metzger, who serves as Rabbi of northern Tel Aviv and is favored in many hareidi circles; and Rabbi Shlomo Dichovsky, who declined an offer by Chief Justice Aharon Barak to sit on Israel's Supreme Court.
The election board comprises 150 members, split equally between rabbis and public figures, and as equally between Ashkenazim and Sephardim. The number includes two representatives of the government (Ministers Zevulun Orlev and Gideon Ezra), five MKs (Ben-Lulu (Likud), Peretz (Shas), Gafni (United Torah Judaism), Herzog (Labor), and Yahalom (NRP)), mayors of 25 cities and several large local councils, religious council heads, ten appointees by the Minister of Religious Affairs, and others.