Key rabbinic vacancy in Jerusalem stays unfilled
Some two years ago a group of journalists was invited to a meeting to discuss the election of a new Ashkenazic chief rabbi of Jerusalem. The post had been vacant for about six years. The mayor himself, Nir Barkat, was there, as was Rachel Azaria, a member of the city council who had organized the evening. The assembled journalists expected that some news would soon be announced.
Yet today the post is still unfilled—a sign of the ongoing conflict between ultra-Orthodox Jews, or haredim, and the non-haredim. The ultra-Orthodox may also be described as anti-Zionist, for they reject the legitimacy of the state of Israel.
By tradition Jerusalem has two chief rabbis, one for Sephardic Jews and one for the Ashkenazi. Sephardic Jews descend from communities in Spain and Northern Africa. Ashkenazi communities developed in Germany and Central Europe. Azaria had proposed that the Ashkenazi chief rabbi be a Zionist, a proposal warmly seconded by the secular mayor. Barkat outlined his vision of a Zionist chief rabbi who could present an image of tolerant, flexible Judaism.
