Ultra-Orthodox rabbis secure majority in Israel’s top Jewish legal body
Chief Rabbinate Council is the main authority on Jewish law for government and religious services; head of advocacy group says new members all appear to back religious status quo
Ultra-Orthodox rabbis have won a majority of seats on the powerful Chief Rabbinate Council, a governing body of 10 rabbis headed by Israel’s two chief rabbis. The organization serves as the main authority on Jewish law for the government and providers of religious services in the country.
Five Ashkenazi and five Sephardi rabbis were elected on Tuesday by a body of 150 rabbinic and civic leaders, the same body responsible for appointing the two chief rabbis.
Of the delegates, 80 are rabbis, while the rest are mayors, lawmakers, cabinet ministers and other public representatives. One hundred and thirty-eight of the representatives participated in the vote in Jerusalem.
The new members of the council include a rabbi who has been instrumental in identifying the bodies of the victims of October 7, Rabbi Yaakov Roja, and an Israel Prize recipient, Rabbi Yitzhak Dovid Grossman. Both of them were elected in the Ashkenazi slots.
Roja is the chief rabbi of Bat Yam. He is a Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox rabbi, but as an expert in burial issues, has served in the military for decades as an adviser to the IDF chief rabbi. As chairman of the Chief Rabbinate’s Dignity of the Deceased Council and as former rabbi of Abu Kabir’s National Center for Forensic Medicine, he was responsible for all non-military personnel murdered in the October 7 massacre.
Grossman is the chief rabbi of Migdal Haemek and founder of the educational organization Migdal Ohr, which serves thousands of children, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The other three Ashkenazi nominees are two rabbis who were born abroad and emigrated to Israel, Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weiss and Rabbi Eliezer Brod, as well as Rabbi Yaakov Shapira.
Weiss was born in Manchester, United Kingdom, from a noted Lithuanian rabbinical family, and moved to Israel in the 1980s. In the past, he opposed attempts to reform the conversion system in Israel. After the Hezbollah attack in Majdal Shams that killed 12 children and teens, Weiss visited the Druze town to express solidarity and prayed for the victims.
Brod is a Chabad rabbi who moved to Israel from Lithuania as a child and is the chief rabbi of Karmei Yosef.
Shapira is the chief rabbi of the renowned yeshiva Mercaz Harav in Jerusalem, considered the flagship institution of the so-called hardali movement within the Religious Zionist community, whose followers adopt an ultra-Orthodox lifestyle but support Zionism and the State of Israel.
Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the controversial chief rabbi of Safed, is the most well-known figure among the Sephardi rabbis elected to the council.
A hardline religious Zionist, Eliyahu is known for his incendiary statements against Arabs and LGBT people. He has also been very active in fighting sexual abuse and its cover-up in the religious community. In July 2024, he signed a letter opposing a hostage deal with Hamas, arguing that paying too high a price to bring home captives held by the terror group would endanger all Israelis.
The other rabbis elected for the Sephardi allotments are Rabbi Eliyahu Elharar, Rabbi Ygal Hacohen, Rabbi Yosef Ben David and Rabbi Yosef Shloush.
Elharar, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, is the chief rabbi of Modi’in. In the past, he opposed reforming the kashrut system and granting public land to Jewish liberal denominations to build synagogues.
Hacohen, the son of immigrants from Iran, became religious as a young man. He is a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party. He is known for his activity promoting Torah learning among the public.
Two years ago Ben David was the first religious-Zionist rabbi appointed in the town of Kiryat Ekron, near Rehovot, a position he still holds.
Shloush, the chief rabbi of the Drom HaSharon Regional Council, comes from a prominent rabbinical family. His grandfather, whom he is named after, was a rabbinical leader in Jerusalem before the establishment of the State of Israel, and his father, Rabbi David Shloush, is the chief rabbi of Netanya. In the past, he came out publicly against attempts to reform the Chief Rabbinate.
Religious Affairs Minister Michael Malkieli, a member of Shas, praised the newly appointed council.
“The elected rabbis represent all segments of the population in Israel,” he said in a statement. “In addition to being Torah scholars who have produced many students, they are known for their sensitivity to the challenges of our times. I congratulate the members of the Chief Rabbinate Council who will be honored to sanctify the name of God for the sake of all citizens of Israel.”
However, the head of ITIM, a Jerusalem-based advocacy group for reforming Israel’s religious bureaucracies, noted that overall, the newly appointed council members appear to all favor preserving the status quo of religious affairs in Israel.
“My hope for the rabbis elected today to the Council of the Chief Rabbinate and my wish for the Jewish people is that these rabbis will work for the benefit of the entire public and for the improvement of religious services, which is so needed,” Rabbi Seth Farber told The Times of Israel.
“However, the composition of the newly chosen council shows that not all that much has changed,” he added. “The ongoing distancing of the Jewish public from its Jewish identity should be their primary concern. Only a fundamental change in attitude toward its role can save the rabbinate.”
