From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
National religious rabbis endorse Smotrich’s pick for next Ashkenazi chief rabbi
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Ahead of the second round of voting for Israel’s next Ashkenazi chief rabbi on October 31, more than 70 prominent national religious rabbis release a public letter calling on members of the Chief Rabbi Election Assembly to vote for candidate Micha Halevi, the chief rabbi of Petah Tikva.
Halevi is a hardline candidate who is backed by both Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism party and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party. He recently received negative publicity due to a scandal involving kosher supervision in Petah Tikva. He has also been slammed for seeking the position after previously promising not to run.
He is competing against Kalman Bar, the chief rabbi of Netanya, who, despite roots in the national religious camp, has received the backing of Degel HaTorah, an ultra-Orthodox party.
Smotrich aims to break the long-time hold by the ultra-Orthodox community on the Ashkenazi chief rabbi post by electing a figure from his national religious camp.
Among the signatories to the letter are prominent hardline settler rabbis and educators, including Rabbis Shlomo Aviner and Elyakim Levanon.
The Times of Israel Community.