Election of Rabbi Kelman Meyerber as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi
Rabbi Kelman Meyerber was elected as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi for a 10-year term.
According to Israeli media reports, the final election between the two chief rabbis, Ber Ke Haredi and Rabbi Mikhahalovi, was held on Thursday, October 31. The two candidates had tied in the first round of elections held on September 29, when Rabbi David Yosef was elected as the Sephardic (Eastern Jews) chief rabbi, who issues fatwas related to Jews and religious issues in countries such as Iran and Iraq.
The election of the Chief Rabbi is conducted by a 150-member statutory electoral commission, with the final result in favor of Rabbi Kelman Meyerber, the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbi of Netanya, by 77 votes to 58. Analysts saw the election as a political victory for the Degel HaTorah faction over Shas and the Religious Zionist Party (RZP).
According to published reports, RZP and Shas had an agreement whereby RZP supported Shas' candidate for the position of Sephardic Chief Rabbi (Yosef), and in return, Shas supported the religious-Zionist candidate for the position of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi.
It is worth noting that over half of all Jews today are Ashkenazi. The Jewish people have two chief rabbis, one of whom is the religious leader of Ashkenazi (European) Jews and the other of Sephardic (Asian or Eastern) Jews. In the past, the term "Ashkenazi" was used to refer to a specific Jewish cultural group for which there is no consensus on the origin and evolution of their population.
