To the dismay of the Shas Party, elections for a new chief rabbi in Yerushalayim have been placed on hold.
In response to a petition filed with the Supreme Court on Sunday, Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, a frum Jew, issued a restraining order freezing the election. The petition was filed by Jerusalem opposition councilman, Nir Barakat and MK Uri Ariel, a frum Jew affiliated with the Dati Leumi stream and member of the National Union Party.
The court order prohibits Minister of Religious Services (Shas) Yitzchak Cohen from engaging in any action towards moving ahead with the election. The court decision all but eliminates any hope of Shas instating Rav Yitzchak Yosef, a son of Rav Ovadia Yosef Shlita as the new chief rabbi, but as long as there is a chance of the election taking place at some time, Shas will not leave the coalition over the matter. (See YWN May 2008 – HERE)
Ariel and Barakat oppose the current bylaws, which they maintain give autonomous authority to the minister to appoint chief rabbis in cities. They called for delaying the election until at least following municipality elections in Yerushalayim.
The two accuse the Shas minister of seeking to maintain total control to ensure chareidi candidates are appointed to the post, accusing him of “destroying the democratic process.”
Barakat praised the move, stating it is a step towards appointing a Zionist rav in the capital, adding some 70% of the city’s residents are not chareidi and they are the ones who most need a chief rabbi to see to their religious needs.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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3 Responses
Next thing the Minister should decide on who is a Godol Hador. These positions also seem filled only by chareidi rabbis.
there are / were plenty of “modern orthodox” gedolei hador. the problem is that often, the charedim do not accept them!
(just as they often do not accept a “godol hador” from the wrong yeshiva, or other “political” issue.)
I second MiMedinat HaYam’s comment. In any case, true Gedolei HaDor are not caught up in divisive political labels -they only case about one label -Yehudim/Yidden. As for most of the rest of us . . .we still have a lot to learn.