(JTA) – Rabbi Meir Soloveichik is among three U.S. rabbis being considered to become Britain’s chief rabbi.
Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University as well as associate rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, is expected in London in a few days for meetings with British Jewish leaders, the Times of Israel reports.
He is the great-nephew of the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik, the longtime leader of American Modern Orthodoxy until his death in 1993.
A senior British community leader told the website that Soloveichik had the behind-the-scenes backing of the current chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks. Sources close to Sacks, however, deny that the chief rabbi is backing anyone.
In addition to Soloveichik, other rabbis rumored under consideration include Emory University law school professor Michael Broyde; Daniel Beller, a British rabbi who moved to Israel 15 years ago; and Jonathan Rosenblatt of the Riverdale Jewish Center in New York, according to the Times of Israel.
The main two candidates in England are widely assumed to be Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis of Finchley United Synagogue and a former chief rabbi of Ireland, and Rabbi Harvey Belovsk of Golders Green United Synagogue in London, the report added.
Sacks is scheduled to step down in September 2013.
