First time in 100 years: Israel lacks a chief rabbi

For the first time in more than a century, Israel has no chief rabbi. The incumbents, David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef, recently left office with no clear successors elected in their stead, leaving the posts vacant for the first time since the 1920s.

The vacancy has created an internal power struggle made more complicated by an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that ultra-orthodox men are not exempt from military service and other issues.

The pair of incumbents closed out what were supposed to be 10-year terms that had been extended a year because of internal politicking that repeatedly has delayed the election of their replacements by the 150-member council of rabbis and public officials. A department of the Israeli government, the Rabbinate has sweeping power over many facets of Israeli life, mostly those that intersect with Jewish ritual and law, such as marriage, divorce, conversion and more.

In recent decades, the Rabbinate’s popularity has plunged among much of the Israeli public, with many viewing the office as a haven of mismanagement, corruption and nepotism, and dominated by Israel’s Haredi minority. It is accused of being out of touch with the general public, including even other religious Jews. It has also been questioned for a severe stance towards evangelical Christianity in the country leading to some ultra-orthodox adherents to openly attack a public Christian prayer event in the Old City last year.

The current situation is in part the result of a battle between the Rabbinate and Israel’s Supreme Court over the role of women in the election of the chief rabbis. For years, women’s rights groups in Israel have argued that women are severely underrepresented on the Rabbinate electoral council. For the strictly Orthodox Rabbinate, the idea of female rabbis is a nonstarter, so that the 80 seats reserved for rabbis include no women. In January, the Supreme Court ruled that women were eligible for the seats designated for rabbis, but stopped short of compelling the Rabbinate to appoint any.

In the absence of elected chief rabbis, their responsibilities have fallen to senior members of the rabbinic councils and courts they presided over. However, after several of those in line refused the job, it was decided that Rabbi Eliezer Igra will assume Lau’s role as the head of Israel’s High Rabbinic Court, on an interim basis, while Rabbi Yaakov Roja will take on Yosef’s role on the Council of the Chief Rabbinate, which sets religious policy.

–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice