Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar received the title "Rishon LeTzion" today in an official ceremony at the Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. He is the 6th rabbi to be thus crowned in this synagogue. Some 500 people came to witness the ceremony, including two of the last three rabbis bearing the title Rishon LeTzion - Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef and Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu - as well as President Moshe Katzav and leaders of the Sephardic communities in Jerusalem.
In accordance with what has become tradition, the regal robes worn by the Chief Rabbi are donated by Turkish Jewry, and were placed upon him by the Chief Rabbi of Turkey.
Later today, Rabbi Amar and new Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yonah Metzger were officially installed at a ceremony in the Great Synagogue. Though they were elected several months ago, the installation ceremony traditionally takes place in the month of Elul, before the High Holidays.