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Isaac Herzog is a Knesset Member from the Labor Party. A lawyer by profession, he previously served as cabinet secretary in the Barak government.
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By Isaac Herzog
December 25, 2002
Originally published in the Jerusalem Post.
On Wednesday, some 150 citizens are going to elect the Chief Rabbinical Council. In a few weeks, they will also have to elect the future chief rabbis who will replace Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron.
The phrase "ethnic gap" is deeply engrained in our national culture, and everything, from integration in the schools to neighborhood restoration - not to mention "mixed" marriage - has been done to reduce it.
In this day and age, anyone suggesting that a legal or any other kind of distinction be made between Sephardim and Ashkenazim would be publicly ostracized. Yet, the Chief Rabbinate Law states that the body that elects the chief rabbis and the Chief Rabbinical Council should be comprised of "half of its members being Sephardi and half Ashkenazi." This is the only law that makes such a distinction. What is amazing is that it was passed in 1980, when Israel was 32 years old.
A decade ago I was appointed by the Rabin government to serve on the committee that put together the electing body for the previous rabbinical elections. That body includes mayors, heads of councils and villages, leading rabbis from all over the country and public servants. I watched the selection process involving the examination of who is Ashkenazi and who is Sephardi, so that we would not inadvertently exceed the legal quota. The process consisted mainly of gossip about those whose ethnicity was hard to determine. We had to have discussions about whether somebody's mother cooked Moroccan food or whether his father's family favored gefilte fish. Since my own mother was born in Egypt, and my father in Ireland, I wondered what that made me.
The fact that there is no documentation of one's ethnicity in this country makes the entire legal stipulation gossip-based and ridiculous.
At the time, I voiced my opinion that there is no room in this country for such a law that goes against the concepts of "ingathering of exiles" and simple human dignity. I still believe this law exhibits racism and discrimination and should be struck from the books.
Another serious issue is the need to appoint two chief rabbis, one Ashkenazi and one Sephardi, for each city individually and for the country as a whole. In public debate, there appears to be a consensus that, in the long run, along with the de-facto melting pot that characterizes this country, the two roles will be merged too.
An appropriate first step would be to select only one chief rabbi for the large cities so that in the election following this one, only one chief rabbi will be elected for the state. It would behoove the incoming Knesset to lead this necessary change.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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