The pressure on Dayan Rav Tzion Boaron to bow out of the race to become the next Rishon L’Tzion continues. The rav however has indicated he plans to see this trough to then end, confident he stands a good chance of being elected. Nevertheless, it appears that Shas remains determined to persuade the rav to bow out, wishing to eliminate any competition to the candidacy of Rav Avraham Yosef.

Rabbi Chizkiyahu Samin, who heads the Chief Rabbinate of Israel Marriage Unit and acts as the chairman of the election committee for the upcoming elections, announced on Thursday, 19 Tammuz 5773 that he is stepping down from his election post. The reason given is that he was one of the people who met with Rav Boaron, presumably to persuade him to drop out of the race.

Once it was learned that the civil servant met with a candidate in the race his disqualified himself from serving in any capacity on the election committee.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)