Preparations are being made in all Jewish communities in Turkey for the forthcoming election of members of a temporary general assembly whose sole duty will be the election of a Chief Rabbi for Turkey, a post which has been vacant since the death of the last Chief Rabbi in 1931 The elections of the members of the assembly will be held next Sunday and the new Chief Rabbi is expected to be named and take office next month.
This is the first time in the history of Turkish Jewry that a popular vote will be held in connection with the naming of the Chief Rabbi. Formerly, the Chief Rabbi was appointed by the Grand Rabbinate’s General Assembly, composed of communal and religious leaders. With the granting of permission by the Turkish Government for the holding of the forthcoming election, the government has to all intents and purposes scrapped an 80-year-old regulation which prohibited the naming of a Chief Rabbi without the express permission of the government.
It is expected that Rabbi Raphael Saban of Istanbul will be chosen Chief Rabbi, although there are five candidates in the field. His first task, it is believed, will be the revamping of the status of the Grand Rabbinate, which serves as the official representative body of Turkish Jewry. All 52, 000 Jews living in Turkey — whether Sephardic or Askenazic, Turkish or foreign — will be permitted to vote in the elections for the temporary assembly, which will sit in Istanbul when it makes its selection of a Chief Rabbi.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
