A 150 member commission (1/3 Knesset members, 1/3 rabbis, 1/3 representatives of the public) elects Israel's chief rabbis. Haredi Rabbi David Lau, who sits on that panel, is running for the position of Ashkenazi chief rabbi, and he wants to be able to vote for himself. He also wants his father – haredi former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau – who sits on that panel to be able to vote, as well. Lau argued that politicians like the prime minister can vote for themselves in regular elections, therefore, Lau argued, he should be able to do the same – even though each vote on the panel represents approximately 50,000 individual Israelis.
Rabbi David Lau
A 150 member commission (1/3 Knesset members, 1/3 rabbis, 1/3 representatives of the public) elects Israel's chief rabbis. Haredi Rabbi David Lau, who sits on that panel, is running for the position of Ashkenazi chief rabbi, backed by many leading haredi rabbis. He wants to be able to vote for himself.
More than that, Lau also wants his father – haredi former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau – who also sits on the panel that elects chief rabbis, to be able to vote for him, as well.
David Lau argued that politicians like the prime minister can vote for themselves in regular elections. Therefore, he argued, he should be able to do the same – even though each vote on the panel represents approximately 50,000 individual Israelis.
Israel's attorney general, who decides issues like this, rejected Lau's request – and his logic.
Yeshiva World reports:
The Ministry of Justice on Monday, 23 Tammuz 5773 [i.e., yesterday] rejected a request from Rabbi David Lau to permit him and his father [former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau] to vote among the voting body for the new Chief Rabbis of Israel since he has submitted his name as a candidate [for the post of Ashkenazi chief rabbi]. He was told by the attorney general that doing so would represent a conflict of interests and therefore, he [and his father] may not [vote].
Rabbi Lau maintains that a prime minister may vote for himself in [general] elections, so he should be permitted [to do] the same. He was told that the election of chief rabbis is different as the chief rabbis are not elected by the general public, but a [small] select body [of rabbis, Members of Knesst and representatives of certain public interst groups – 150 members in total]. Such a process is viewed to be on a higher level that a regular appointment of a civil service employee and therefore he and his father may not vote as requested.