A law postponing the Chief Rabbinate elections for another year and extending the term of the present rabbis accordingly will be introduced in the Knesset by July 9, the Cabinet decided today.
The terms of the chief rabbis have already Lapsed in fact since the election was scheduled for the fall of 1977. Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has ceased going to his office in an effort to pressure the government and the political parties into holding new elections.
There is little chance of this however, since Likud and the National Religious Party have in effect agreed on a further postponement.
During the coming year, new legislation will be passed, if the government has its way, reconstituting the Chief Rabbinate so that incumbents would be elected for ten-year terms, instead of the present five, and their roles would be split-with each serving alternately as Chief Rabbinate Council President and Rabbinical Court President, instead of each fulfilling both functions simultaneously as at present. (By David Landau)
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