A private members bill offered by the Liberal party to establish one Chief Rabbi for Israel was defeated in Parliament by a combination of Mapai and religious parties votes.
Foes of the measure argued that the separate traditions of the Ashkenazic and Sephardi communities made the continuation of two Chief Rabbis desirable. Religious Affairs Minister Zorach Warhaftig said he was sure the time would come when the Jews of Israel would be sufficiently homogeneous for one Chief Rabbi but that the time was not yet ripe.
Israel currently has a Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Yitzhak Nissim, but the post of Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi has been vacant since the death several years ago of Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog. Choice of a successor has been bogged down in a long inter-party conflict over procedures for choosing a new Chief Rabbinate.
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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.
