Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky

The two new chief rabbis of Israel will be elected in Jerusalem Wednesday by 150 electors. The rabbis will hold office for the next decade.

Among those electing the rabbis, one Ashkenazi and one Sephardi, will be cabinet ministers, MKs, rabbis, mayors, religious court judges, heads of local religious councils and representatives of the general public. The electoral assembly will meet in a Jerusalem hotel and hold a secret ballot.

On Tuesday, one day before the election, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Religious Services Minister Naftali Bennett announced they plan to change legislation to provide for a single chief rabbi.

The position is currently divided between two chief rabbis, one Ashkenazi and the other Sephardi.

The four candidates on the Sephardi ballot are: Rabbis Yitzhak Yosef, head of the Hazon Ovadia Yeshiva; Shmuel Eliyahu, rabbi of Safed; Zion Boaron, a rabbinical court judge on the High Rabbinical Court; and Ratzon Arusi, rabbi of Kiryat Ono. Running for the Ashkenazi position are three rabbis: David Stav, rabbi of Shoham and chairman of the Tzohar movement; David Lau, rabbi of Modi’in; and Yaakov Shapira, head of the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva.

Two candidates, Rabbis Eliyahu Abergel and Eliezer Igra, withdrew from the race in the past few days.

For more go to Haaretz

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