Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on October 21, 2014

Rabbis Aryeh Stern and Shlomo Amar were voted Jerusalem's new chief rabbis of on Tuesday evening, after 11 years in which the posts stood vacant.

The 48 electors who cast their ballots at city hall on Tuesday afternoon chose Amar to serve in the capacity of the capital's Sephardi chief rabbi, and Stern as Ashkenazi chief rabbi.

The two winners enjoyed the backing of both Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat, who has long wanted to get a Zionist rabbi elected as the citys chief rabbi, and Naftali Bennett, chairman of religious-Zionist party Habayit Hayehudi.

In the Sephardi race, Amar won 28 votes, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu got 18, and Rabbi Haim Amsalem two. Eliyahu, who is currently serving as chief rabbi of Safed, is well known to the Israeli public due to his anti-Arab statements and edicts. He was indicted for incitement to racism in 2007, but the charges were withdrawn after he retracted and apologized for his remarks.

In the race for Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Stern won 27 votes, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Lau 20, and one envelope was left empty.

See the article here:

Rabbis Stern, Amar elected new chief rabbis of Jerusalem

Category: Ashkenazi
Tags: