One of the several “hot topics” in Israeli politics today is “Who should be the next (Ashkenazi) Chief Rabbi.
Who cares?
The haredim – the extreme religious people – follow their own rabbis. Until his death, Yosef Shalom Elyashiv was chief rabbi to the denizens of Bene Brak and Mea Sherim, never mind that there was an official Ashkenazi chief rabbi.
Menachem Mendel , until his death, was the absolute leader of Chabad Lubavitch.
Shlomo Amar has the title if Rishion l’Tzion (Mizrachi chief rabbi), but in truth most Mizrachim and many Sefardim consider Amar a tool of Ovadia Yosef and look to the latter for rabbinical leadership.
Bottom line: Observant Jews in Israel, for the most part follow their own rabbinical leadership. NON-observant Jews in Israel generally don’t care who is wearing the crown and do whatever they can to avoid the political rabbinute.
It would be nice, however, if the rabbinical leadership could be more inclusive and less insular; if rabbinical Judaism looked for ways to accommodate today’s Jews within halacha.
There ARE rabbis – Ashkenazi, Mizrachi, and Sefardi – who DO make the effort. R. Yosef Messas (ע''ה), former chief Sefardi rabbi of Haifa, was famous – or infamous, depending on your point of view – for making an effort to “find a way” to accommodate all Jews.
In the end, naming a rabbi to be a “chief rabbi” is a political game controlled by a 150-member body of men – no women allowed - that elects the two chief rabbis; it consists of rabbis, mayors, heads of religious councils, and appointees of the chief rabbis and of the minister of religious affairs, In other words, pretty much an “old boys’ network.”
This year – chief rabbis are anointed for a 10-year stint – the selection appears to be even more politicized that in the past with the Bayt Yehudi party supporting a rabbi and making a deal with Ovadia Yosef to allow Yosef’s man, Amar, to have an unprecedented second 10-year term.
In the end, the “Who cares” status quo will remain.
Meanwhile, members of what amounts to a private club will fight among themselves to elect a person who will be “chief rabbi” of a dwindling population.
The haredim won’t accept him.
The heloni won’t accept him.
The non-traditional Jews – Conservative and Reform – won’t acknowledge them.
The anti-religious simply will ignore him as they ignore all rabbis.
But the rabbis, and now the politicians, will have an opportunity to show one and all that the Israeli religious hierarchy is all about who you know – just like everything else in Israel.
