Haredi parties trade barbs after national-religious candidate gets job of rabbi of Savyon

By Rossella Tercatin

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

4 February 2026, 9:14 pm

Edit

Rossella Tercatin is The Times of Israel's archaeology and religions reporter.

Haredi parties United Torah Judaism and Shas trade barbs after national-religious rabbi Uri Sadan, a member of the moderate Orthodox organization Tzohar, is elected rabbi of the central town of Savyon.

“Following Shas’s insistence on not supporting Degel HaTorah’s candidate for the position of rabbi of Savyon — and after its own candidate received a total of just three votes — neither the Shas candidate nor the Degel HaTorah candidate was elected, and a Tzohar candidate was chosen instead,” MK Moshe Gafni, chairman of Degel HaTorah, UTJ’s Lithuanian faction, says in a statement.

“Anyone who follows their conduct in the provision of religious services and in the selection of rabbis knows that this is ‘the way of those who are foolish,'” he adds, quoting Psalms 49:14.

“It is regrettable to see how the chairman of Degel HaTorah, a movement that once saw itself as a defender of the Torah world, chooses to busy himself with job-grabbing instead of confronting the real challenges of the moment,” Shas responds. “And to the facts: Degel HaTorah’s candidate for the Savyon rabbinate, a local resident, ran and received zero votes. Zero. So how, exactly, did Shas’s three votes prevent his election?”

Sadan is an IDF reservist who served in Gaza and is the head of a congregation in Petah Tikva.

Municipal rabbis are meant to serve as the direct religious authority for the Jewish residents of their city or town, signing off on things like marriage licenses and kosher certificates for local restaurants.

Savyon has about 4,400 residents and is one of the most affluent towns in Israel. The position of town chief rabbi had been vacant since 2016. Several dozen such positions are currently vacant nationwide, including the chief rabbis of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

To select a candidate, a committee is formed in each city. Members of the committee include representatives of the city council, appointees of the Religious Services Ministry and the head of the local religious council.