A pledge to boycott the elections of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Chief Rabbis unless proper arrangements are made by the Government for the participation of representatives of the Chief Rabbinate Council in the commission which is to nominate the candidates for the posts, was made today by 400 rabbis assembled at the Great Synagogue here to discuss the controversy which has arisen in connection with the elections.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet at its session today in Jerusalem, deferred decision on the question of extending the tenure of the Chief Rabbinate Council which expired on October 21 and whose legal existence is, therefore, in doubt. Elections of the Chief Rabbis as well as the new Council, have not yet been held because of the resignation of four members of the eight-man nominating commission, which left that body without the required quorum of five members.
A move to extend the tenure of the Council was pressed today by Binyamin Mintz, Maister of Posts, who insisted that official inaction to remedy the situation continued to undermine the prestige of the high institution which, he said, was regarded both in Israel and abroad as Jewry’s supreme religious tribunal.
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion presided over, but did not participate in the discussion, maintaining his declared “neutrality” since he assumed the portfolio of Acting Minister for Religious Affairs after the death of Rabbi Yaakov Toledano.
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