Rabbi David Stav, head of the Tzohar Rabbis organization and chief rabbi of Shoham, in the coming days is expected to announce his entry into the race for Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel. That election will be held in June 2013, a few months after the elections for the 19th Knesset.

Some of the candidates he will be competing against include Modi’in Chief Rabbi David Lau, and Merkaz Harav Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Yaakov Shapira. Rav Stav will gradually be handing over his duties as head of Tzohar as a result.

The rav spoke with the Yisrael Hayom daily, quoted as speaking of the growing praise Tzohar Rabbonim receive for their commitment and outreach work from so many secular Jews, and he feels as chief rabbi he and the organization will be capable of doing so much more.

In interviews with the media in the past Rav Stav spoke of the need for achdus and a chief rabbi who will unit, not further divide the residents of the country. He fears that as a result of today’s painful realities, the nation may lose its Jewish identity and he envisions the Chief Rabbinate turning around the current system towards involving in bridging communities and major outreach t other non-frum community.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)