By COLlive reporter
The holy city of Jerusalem has many rabbis, and now two with the title “Chief Rabbi.”
After an 11-year vacancy, Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Aryeh Stern were elected on Tuesday evening as the Sephardi and Ashkenazi heads of the Jerusalem Rabbinate, respectively.
48 electors voted from a pool of 12 candidates to fill the two spots in a race that had many complaining was demeaning and politically motivated. The elected rabbis themselves notified they will use the position to spread unity.
Rabbi Stern, born in Tel Aviv, is the director and chief editor of the Halacha Brura Institute, a teacher at the Zionistic Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, and rabbi of a synagogue in the Katamon neighborhood in Jerusalem.
“We need to allow a dialogue and a shared discourse of scholars from all sectors, based on Torah and faith and not by politics, and through this we will bring hearts closer to Hashem,” Rabbi Stern said in a radio interview after hearing the results.
Rabbi Amar served as the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel between the years 2003-2013. He was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and studied at the Chabad institutions there before emigrating to Israel in 1962 at age 14.
He was a close associate of the spiritual leader of the Shas Party and former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef OBM. He also served as the head of the Petah Tikva Beis Din and Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv.
“I thank Hashem,” Rabbi Amar said in comments after the election. “This is a joy but also a responsibility. To take upon myself such an important position is a responsibility.”
Jerusalem City Councilman Yaakov Halperin, a Lubavitcher, said before the elections that “when deciding who to vote for, I will sit and think what the Rebbe would want me to do. And then consult with 2 Mashpiim and hear from them if what I decided is correct.”
The city’s chief rabbi post is a position for life.
Rabbi Amar is an excellent choice indeed!!
Mazal Tov