Israel’s Chief Rabbinate
While the world’s attention has been focused on the American election, a far less publicized but still significant election for the Chief Rabbinate took place in Israel.
Jeremy Rosen
Which after months of wrangling was finally decided. With left and right fighting over who should sit on the electoral committee and over egalitarianism.
I have always been a rebel and disliked authority and power. Particularly when it is associated with religion from which I expect a higher level of ethics and morality than elsewhere. And yet I am constantly disappointed . When people achieve authority, they tend to make decisions based on preserving their power, rather than the moral criteria. That is why religion and politics are two very different areas of human activity that really ought to be kept apart. Sadly, they rarely are.
Israel is a good example of this clash of values and ideals. Secular, democratic political parties, with their left and right wings. And the religious with their varieties and extremes. Jockeying for power and influence in a political system rife with dirty dealings and political rivalries.
The Chief Rabbinate controls important levers of income and authority, from marriage, divorce, conversions and kashrut . It also provides extremely well-paid and plentiful easy jobs for the boys( less so for the girls), and like all bureaucracies, is unsurprisingly very bureaucratic. This is fertile ground for corruption and indeed unpopularity. Yet there are some wonderful, honest, devoted and impressive rabbis serving in Israel’s rabbinate today.
The tensions that we have witnessed in Israel between ethnic groups, the right and the left, secular and the religious, the Supreme Court and its critics, and the different voices within them, illustrate, the near impossibility of reconciliation and compromise. Caught between conflicting interests comes the Chief Rabbinate whose courts run parallel with secular courts. A government agency of great power and reach that is unpopular with many sectors of Jewish life in Israel today for good reason.
Candidates for the chief rabbinate who are not approved of by the Charedi world stand little chance of getting elected. As a result, with political appointees, some Chief Rabbis have been convicted of crimes, others suspected but covered up. And the only criterion seems to be getting enough Charedi votes.
In the early years of the state most of the state rabbis were committed to the cause of a Jewish state even if they wouldn’t necessarily call themselves Zionists politically. The Chief Rabbinates performed very well given the constraints. The Offices of the Chief Rabbis understood the necessity of compromise and yet fought quite doggedly for the rights of the religious world to be upheld and for working together with both the secular and the Charedi communities. They were all committed to military service and the full participation of the religious world in the wider society. Over time the institution, like most others in Israel, was slowly infected by a bureaucracy of entitlement laziness and incompetence. So that the chief rabbinate lost the respect that had been built up in the early years.
At first, the Charedi community simply ignored the Chief Rabbinate. Their religious and sometimes charismatic leaders and authorities were not elected or appointed. They emerged as natural leaders. They had their own standards and attitudes towards Israeli life. But then the Charedi community increased, and it saw opportunities. The salaries of community and local rabbis were very attractive, and you didn’t have to have a secular education. Increasingly they entered the rabbinate and over time have come to dominate it so that the moderates have largely been undercut not to mention silenced. And they have imposed on the non-Charedi rabbis, for example expecting them all to wear black hats and frock coat as if rabbis needed uniforms.
This year the Sephardi candidate got through easily in a predetermined election that saw yet another member of the Yosef dynasty intent on keeping it in one family. The Ashkenazi Lau family also tried to maintain their grip on the position but could not gather enough support. The Ashkenazi election came down to two candidates. Eventually Rabbi Kalman Ber from Netanya was elected by 77-58 with Charedi party votes both Sephardi and Ashkenazi. He defeated the more open and impressive Rabbi Micha Halevi of Petach Tikvah who had support from the Religious Zionists.
Both men have good reputations and claimed to be moderates. At the induction ceremony they spoke of embracing all sectors of Israeli life, to support IDF soldiers, visit army camps, and comfort the families of kidnapped Israelis. Rabbi Yosef concluded in English with a Trumpian declaration that resonated with the audience: “We will make the Chief Rabbinate great again!” Chief Rabbi Ber echoed his commitment to unity, expressing the vision rooted of Rabbi Kook. “My greatest mission is to bring about unity among all parts of the people,” he said.
I have heard this before from Chief Rabbis across the world. Music to my ears. But given human nature, they rarely live up to their campaign promises. In Israel, as the winning candidates were elected thanks to Charedi votes, I cannot see any change in matters of law or the culture of the rabbinate. Any hope for a new era will once again be brushed under the carpet. And nothing will change. The only saving grace is that Chief Rabbis are only elected for ten years. I pray I am proven wrong.
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
