According to many, Moshe Leon is going to be the chareidi candidate in the upcoming Jerusalem mayoral race. Interestingly, Leon has at least one thing in common with the incumbent, Mayor Nir Barkat. Leon has announced that if elected he will work towards the election of a dati leumi chief rabbi in the capital.
Yerushalayim has been without chief rabbis for well over a decade as no one seems able to reach agreement. In the last election Shas cut a deal with Barkat by which they would support his dati leumi candidate for Ashkenazi chief rabbi for as long as the mayor supports the election of Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef for the Sephardi post. Maran HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef Shlita at the last moment decided not to move ahead with that deal. In any event, it is no longer relevant as Rav Yitzchak Yosef has since been elected as the nation’s new Rishon L’Tzion.
The point is while both leading candidates in the mayoral race appear committed to a dati leumi Ashkenazi rav, the Shas deal may soon be back on the table in the upcoming race.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
The Chareidi voting bloc in the CR far outweigh the Daati voting bloc thus ensuring a Chareidi CR of Jerusalem should it ever come to a vote.
#1- Under normal circumstances, city representatives appoint the city’s Chief Rabbis, not the council of the Chief Rabbinate. Certainly, the body that elected the Chief Rabbis, in which charedim had a large majority, will have nothing to do with this process. The two pivotal positions that have the most influence on the election of the city representatives are the Mayor and the Minister of Religious Affairs. For years these two offices have represented opposing positions (Mayor Barkat has been supporting D”L rabbis, the Sha”s appointed Minister of Religious Affairs had been supporting charedi rabbis) which resulted in deadlock and no rabbis appointed. Now that the Minister of Religious Affairs is D”L, charedim must elect a mayor who will do their bidding on this subject or it is virtually certain that Jerusalem will have D”L Chief Rabbis.
BH as long as he is an ISH EMES, Talmid Chocham and Ohev Yisroel.