Chief Rabbi of Holon Avraham Yosef, urged the Chief Rabbinate's Council to reject renewal
of Rabbi David Stav’s certificate to serve as a dayan (religious judge), which would
bar Stav from sitting on any official beit din (Orthodox religious
court) in Israel. It would also effectively bar him from running for the
office of Ashkenazi chief rabbi in the next election.
Brother Of Sefardi Chief Rabbi Tries To Have Rabbinate Defrock Opponent
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
When Rabbi David Stav, head of the moderate Zionist Orthodox Tzohar Movement, ran for Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel earlier this year, Sefardi haredi leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef lashed out at him, warning that Stav’s election would irreparably damage Judaism in Israel. Perhaps more importantly, support for Stav’s candidacy weakened support for Yosef’s son’s candidacy for Sefardi chief rabbi – and it also hurt the Sefardi haredi Shas political party Yosef founded and led and which depends heavily on patronage jobs it doles out through various government ministries and offices it controls, including the chief rabbinate. Stav election could have dramatically reduced or ended those.
On top of that, Shas had made deals with other political parties to support another candidate for Ashkenazi chief rabbi in exchange for support for Yosef’s son.
Stav lost. A haredi rabbi, David Lau, won, as did Yosef’s haredi son Yitzhak, who is now the Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Israel.
On Monday, the Council of Chief Rabbinate of Israel reportedly held its first post-election meeting.
At that meeting, another of Yosef’s son’s, Chief Rabbi of Holon Avraham Yosef, reportedly urged the council to reject renewal of Stav’s certificate to serve as a dayan (religious judge), which would bar Stav from sitting on any official beit din (Orthodox religious court) in Israel. It would also effectively bar him from running for the office of Ashkenazi chief rabbi in the next election.
The council refused to approve Avraham Yosef’s move, Yeshiva World reported, and instead renewed Stav’s dayan status along with the dayan status of many other rabbis who had not recently sat as religious court judges even though qualified to do so.
Shas has often been malicious and cruel to opponents both in and outside of the political ring, and is known for using unethical and even illegal tactics to hurt them.
Avraham Yosef is currently under criminal investigation for public corruption and fraud involving favoritism in kosher certification and abuse of his government sponsored position by allegedly illegally forcing businesses to pay a third Yosef brother for kosher certification.