The committee responsible for appointing dayanim to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel’s batei din has appointed Rabbi Mordechai Ralbag as Av Beis Din Yerushalayim in place of Rabbi Eliyahu Abarjil, who stepped down after 31 years of service. Chief Rabbi HaRav Dovid Lau signed approving the appointment, as he is now responsible for the nation’s batei din.
Rav Abarjil, who is retiring, served in the Ashkelon Beis Din as well as in Beersheva, but spent most of his career, 21 years, in Yerushalayim, some as a dayan and eventually, as av beis din.
The appointments committee was established during Rishon L’Tzion HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef’s tenure as Av Beis Din over the Chief Rabbinate batei din. Rav Yosef was prohibited from dealing with the appointments because a brother-in-law was among dayanim wishing to be selected. As such, a special committee was formed from members of the Chief Rabbinate Council, including Rabbi Michael Amos, Rabbi Binyamin Atias and Rabbi Zebadya HaKohen. They operated in addition to Justice Ministry oversight.
Rabbi Uriel Lavie and Rabbi Mordechai Toledano competed for the post of Av Beis Din Yerushalayim against Rav Ralbag. It is pointed out that while Rav Lau signed off approving Rav Ralbag, he was prohibited from playing a role in the decision-making process since Rav Ralbag is his brother-in-law.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
sounds like the whole rabanut is full of nepotism
chief rabbis lau & yosef are sons of former chief rabbis
now their brothers in law are being piggy backed too?
i’m a little wary about how their names got pushed to the top