'This whole process has been quite ugly'

Divisive, long-delayed election for chief rabbi to proceed Thursday

Over a year late, the vote for Israel’s top Ashkenazi authority seems to be on track amid political strife and broken commitments

Mati Wagner is The Times of Israel's religions reporter.

Committee members at the elections for Israel's new chief rabbis in Jerusalem, September 29, 2024. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)
Committee members at the elections for Israel's new chief rabbis in Jerusalem, September 29, 2024. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

Following a year of delays — after rabbis clashed with High Court justices over the inclusion of women in the voting committee, political promises were made and broken, and a misplaced ballot disqualified an entire election — 70 rabbis and 70 politicians and public servants will meet for the second, and hopefully last, time on Thursday to choose a new Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the State of Israel.

Barring any last-minute drama, the next Ashkenazi chief rabbi will be either the current chief rabbi of Petah Tikva Micha Halevi, or the chief rabbi of Netanya Kalman Ber.

Both candidates were educated in religious Zionist institutions and served in the IDF, but religious Zionists are bitterly split over which of the two to support.

“There is only one religious Zionist candidate running who has the full support of the rabbis,” Ramat Gan’s chief rabbi Yaakov Ariel said, referring to Halevi. “And that’s all there is to say.”

Ariel, who in 2003 lost a bid for Ashkenazi chief rabbi due to Haredi opposition, is considered one of religious Zionism’s most respected and senior rabbinical authorities.

Meanwhile, the chairman of Tzohar, one of Israel’s largest religious Zionist rabbinic organizations, has come out in support of Ber.

“Someone who went against the Torah, morality, and what is just and right cannot be the chief rabbi,” said Tzohar head Rabbi David Stav. “Rabbi Halevi promised to accept the decision of the council, then he reneged. That is not moral, not halachic, and not right.”

Rabbi Micha Halevi speaks at a ceremony in a religious school in Petah Tikva, May 17, 2023. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)

Stav was referring to a decision by a council of religious Zionist rabbis headed by Ariel that met on June 4, 2023, and chose Rabbi Meir Kahana, 55, head of the Ashkelon Rabbinic Court, as their consensus candidate to run as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi.

Halevi, 60, who lost the bid to Kahana, signed a document promising to respect the council’s decision. But shortly afterward he retracted his promise and announced his intention to run.

Ber, in contrast, who succeeded in garnering broad support from the Haredi rabbinic establishment, refrained from seeking the support of Ariel’s committee even though he also has his roots in the religious Zionist camp.

Ber’s broad Haredi support and his decision not to be tagged as an expressly religious Zionist candidate led Ariel and a long list of other respected religious Zionist rabbis to come out in support of Halevi.

Meanwhile, many religious Zionists see Halevi’s about-face as a stain on the Chief Rabbinate.

Ashkenazi chief rabbi candidate Kalman Ber poses for a portrait after becoming chief rabbi of Netanya, September 15, 2014. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)

Chief rabbis — who needs them, anyway?

“We, as religious Zionists, have already lost the race even though both the candidates are technically religious Zionists,” said Rabbanit Dr. Tirza Kelman of Nishmat, an educational institute that trains female Orthodox halachic authorities.

“The whole process was quite ugly and the inability to stand behind promises was very significant,” she said.

Kelman, an academic who specializes in Jewish law and heads Nishmat’s Hebrew-language website, said that the failure was twofold.

“We lost a really good candidate, a man who has extensive experience as a rabbinic judge and who has also served as a rabbi and is also a lieutenant colonel in the IDF,” said Kelman, referring to Kahana.

Rabbanit Dr. Tirza Kelman. (Aviad Kelman)

“But it’s also a political loss, a breakdown of the idea of a united religious Zionist movement that is able to cooperate and form a consensus,” she said. “It also raises questions about the need for a chief rabbinate altogether, about the honor of the Torah, about whether the post is just a job or whether it can be something more, whether it can bring honor to the Torah for a lot of different people, or not.”

Chief rabbis are subject to much media attention and represent the State of Israel in an official capacity both locally and internationally, and sometimes comment on current events.

The two chief rabbis — one representing communities of Sephardic descent and the other representing the Ashkenazi ones, which have differing customs — also split responsibility for running an extensive and lucrative state-run kosher food supervision apparatus and a nationwide rabbinical court system, which has extensive powers over marriage, divorce, burial, and other milestone events.

The chief rabbis are able to use their position to cultivate connections and to facilitate the appointment of political cronies.

But the post in and of itself isn’t necessarily representative of true rabbinic authority, though some past chief rabbis have been respected rabbinic authorities as well.

Neither Halevi nor Ber are considered towering rabbinic authorities, though both are known to be well-versed in Jewish law and have devoted their entire lives to studying and teaching Judaism.

Horse-trading, midstream

Elections for the chief rabbis, which take place every 10 years, have traditionally involved much political wrangling in which a particular stream of Orthodox Judaism with political affiliations demonstrates its power to push through an appointment.

And this election is no exception.

Protesters rally for women’s rights outside the Tel Aviv Rabbinate offices, July 18, 2023 (Yael Gadot)

Shas, United Torah Judaism and Religious Zionism, all members of the ruling government coalition and all representing different segments of Orthodox populations in Israel, had varying degrees of success at pushing their own candidates.

Shas succeeded in securing the post of Sephardic chief rabbi for David Yosef, a son of Shas founder the late rabbi Ovadia Yosef and a highly regarded halachic authority in his own right. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the brother of David, is the outgoing Sephardic chief rabbi.

In contrast, the election bid for an Ashkenazi chief rabbi has been wracked with controversy.

The initial consensus formed around the candidacy of Kahana began to fall apart after several leading rabbis expressed concern that Shas and United Torah Judaism would refuse to support him.

Rumors were spread against Kahana claiming he was sympathetic to more liberal streams of Orthodox Judaism.

In contrast, Halevi was seen as a safer choice with a greater chance of being elected.

Ashkenazi chief rabbi candidate Meir Kahana poses for a picture in Jerusalem on June 7, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Though Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionism party, declared he would respect the decision of the council that chose Kahana, he backtracked on the eve of the first round of elections which took place on September 29 and transferred his support to Halevi, apparently out of concern that Kahana would not be chosen.

In the run-up to the second and final round of votes, a number of leading religious Zionists have come out in favor of Halevi, not necessarily based on personal acquaintance with the candidate.

“People asked me to support a particular candidate and I said I don’t know who they are,” said Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the Ateret Yerushalayim Yeshiva, who is considered farther to the right on the religious Zionist spectrum and closer to the Haredi community.

“I don’t know if they are the most righteous, whether they are true Torah scholars or whether they are the best connected with the people, which are the three most important criteria for choosing a rabbi,” he said.

Illustrative: Religious Zionism head Bezalel Smotrich (standing) with United Torah Judaism leader Yitzchak Goldknopf at the Knesset on November 21, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Nevertheless, said Aviner, he agreed to support Halevi.

“Firstly, I know him a bit. Also, rabbis who are greater than me told me to support him. So I trust these rabbis who are all righteous, scholars, and well connected with the people,” said Aviner.

Aviner refrained from saying who these rabbis were.

Meanwhile, chief rabbi of Kiryat Motzkin David Meir Drukman, one of the 70 rabbis who has voting rights in Thursday’s election, said that he still has not decided whom to vote for.

“Both of the candidates are worthy, but I don’t know which of them I will choose,” Drukman said.

Drukman, who is affiliated with Chabad, said that no attempts have been made to pressure him to support one candidate or the other.

“Maybe that’s because everyone knows I am not someone who is subject to pressure,” he noted.

He also said that Chabad as a movement is not supporting a particular candidate.

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