Chief rabbi candidate hits back at ultra-Orthodox

JTA — David Stav has based his campaign to become Israel’s next Ashkenazi chief rabbi on a message of inclusion, friendliness and tolerance.

But in an exclusive interview with JTA, he spoke harsh words against those who have attacked him in recent weeks.

The attacks began two weeks ago, when Rabbi Ovadia Yosef used his weekly speech to call Stav “a wicked man.”

Yosef, Israel’s chief Sephardi spiritual and legal authority, said that Stav – who’s painted himself as a reformer – is “dangerous to Judaism, dangerous to the rabbinate and dangerous to Torah.”

One day later, some haredi Orthodox youth took Yosef’s words to heart, literally pushing Stav around at a wedding.

And then last Thursday, the man whom Stav hopes to replace, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, was arrested for fraud and money laundering.

“The people of Israel wants a Judaism that speaks not in threats and curses but in a pleasant language and ways of peace,” he said.

He wouldn’t comment directly on Metzger’s arrest, but said earlier in the interview that Israel “needs a rabbinate not ruled by corrupt politicians but by God-fearing people.” Stav’s insisted that he only wants to make the rabbinate more user-friendly, not to change Jewish law. He’s against instituting civil marriage in Israel and won’t recognize non-Orthodox conversions.

The haredi leadership in Israel doesn’t seem to believe him, but in the wake of Yosef’s statements, Stav received the endorsement of the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America.

Stav told JTA that if elected, he wants to strengthen the Chief Rabbinate’s relationships with Jewish communities outside Israel. One of his goals would be to push for a unified international standard of kashrut.

“The Israeli rabbinate is not just the top institution in the Jewish state but is also a formal authority for Jewish people worldwide,” he said. “We want a permanent dialogue with the different organizations and rabbinates in the United States and different places in the world.”