Feb 3, 2014

Barkat's compromise on Jerusalem Rabbis

Finally a good solution in the public sphere, employing some form of compromise and goodwill, rather than the ramming through according to what I want, what I think is better, even against significant numbers of other people.

Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat has changed his stance regarding the appointment of Chief Rabbis of the city, that was sorely lacking for many years. Barkat had been committed to getting "Zionist Rabbis" appointed to the positions. At the same time, other groups have their interests in getting either a Haredi rav, or specifically a Shas-affiliated (or maybe "Shas-approved" is a more accurate title), rav appointed. And of course it can be broken down further even among Zionist rabbis, among haredi rabbis, etc. what type of rabbi should get the position of chief rabbi.

Barkat's new position (though he says it is not new) is that the right thing to do in Jerusalem would be to get one Zionist Rabbi appointed, and one Haredi rabbi appointed.

Barkat said  there are various and diverse opinions as to what should be in Jerusalem. I believe the right thing for Jerusalem is to have one Zionist rabbi and one Haredi rabbi. This is what I believed in the past, and also today. I believe we are not far from starting the engines on the process of selecting 2 chief rabbis for the city. It is important for the city that they should represent all sectors - religious, haredi and secular. The challenge is for us to bring honor to Jerusalem via the selection of the rabbonim who will know to embrace and connect to all communities in the city.

As long as the model of two chief and city rabbis is still in effect, this is a good compromise position. The only problem is that there will still be fights, even if the proposal is accepted - Shas will want the Haredi rav to be from Shas, for the Sephardi position, while UTJ will want the Sephardi Chief Rabbi to be Zionist and the Ashkenazi rabbi to be Haredi. I don't know if the Zionist community will have a preference as to which rabbi is Zionist.




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2 comments:

  1. JoshFebruary 03, 2014 5:24 PM

    Either way, the 'Zionists' have not learnt anything from their 'loss' in the national elections, otherwise, we would know that the two front-running candidates are both Rav Shmuel Eliyahu and Rav Stern. The Bayit Yehudi has a real dilemma. Theoretically, 'they' want Rav Stern as the national religious candidate, but Rav Dahan certainly wants Rav Eliyahu. And since the BY is trying to push the one rabbi law into effect, they will really be ensuring that one Haredi rabbi wins in Jerusalem and in the next national elections in 2023. I have no doubt.

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 04, 2014 9:42 PM

    All a bunch of political game paying. This is just another step (incrementally) to the complete secularization of Israel, which has slowly been killing Judaism in Israel for the last 20 years. Whoever doesn't see it yet is either living in his own bubble and doesn't want to think about it or just plain doesn't care, r'l. Since when have trueTorah Jews become multicultural? Might be better to not have a chief rabbi at all since they are given no choice but to answer to gov rather than the Almighty.

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