The House Committee of Israel’s Parliament approved today new regulations for the long-delayed elections for a new Chief Rabbinate Council of which two members will serve as Israel’s Chief Rabbis, one Ashkenasic and one Sephardi.
The regulations, which were promulgated by Religious-Affairs Minister Zorach Warhaftig, after an interparty agreement between Mapai and the National Religious Bloc, provide for a nine-man elections committee. Four members will be named by the Government on recommendation of the Religious Affairs Minister and four by the present Rabbinate Council. The eight will jointly select an outsider to serve as chairman.
Candidates for the Chief Rabbi posts must have served at-least ten years, the new regulations provide. Israel presently has only a-Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Yitzhak Nissim. The post of Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi has remained unfilled since the death several years ago of Dr. Isaac Herzog.
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