Tzohar Candidates May Run for Chief Rabbis
Tzohar, the rabbinical organization that has recently launched a campaign to “strengthen the Chief Rabbinate” is considering running candidates in the upcoming elections for Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis.
The candidate for Ashkenazi chief rabbi will probably be the organization’s chairman, Rabbi David Stav, though the move and the choice must still be approved by Tzohar’s leadership.
The elections are expected to be held at the end of March 2013, since both Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar end their ten-year terms next April.
Sources in the national-religious Tzohar organization refused to confirm the details, but Stav has been mentioned as a possible candidate for some time now, and many Tzohar rabbis believe that after a decade of Haredi dominance of the Chief Rabbinate, it should be “more national and more Zionist.”
Haredi rabbis still constitute a majority in the selection body that includes 150 rabbis, as well as representatives from the government, Knesset and religious councils.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!