Rabbi Kalman Ber is elected Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi for the next 10 years.
He wins the second round 77-58 over Rabbi Micha Halevi, after an earlier election this month ended with both of them tied for first.
Until now, Ber served as the Ashkenazi city rabbi of Netanya.
Having roots in the Bnei Akiva and religious Zionist movements, the Haredi Ber was backed by ultra-Orthodox party Degel HaTorah.
He was also supported, particularly after the first round, by many who were campaigning against Halevi, who had promised not to run in the election if not chosen by a committee tasked with selecting a single religious Zionist candidate, and then violated that promise by running anyway after not being selected. A hardline candidate, he was nevertheless backed by Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party and Aryeh Deri’s ultra-Orthodox Shas.
The Sephardic chief rabbi who will serve alongside Ber for the next decade is David Yosef, elected earlier this month.
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