The municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa is set to elect a new chief rabbi on Sunday, bringing to a head a months-long fight over religious authority, municipal autonomy, and political influence in one of Israel’s most secular and symbolically charged cities.
The vote is scheduled to take place between 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. at the Tel Aviv Religious Council building, after two High Court-driven delays and a battle over the makeup of the 64-member body that will choose the city’s next rabbi.
The position has been vacant for nearly nine years, since former chief rabbi Israel Meir Lau left office in 2017, but the race is not only about filling an empty seat.
In Tel Aviv, the city rabbi signs off on marriage registration and kashrut certificates, carries informal religious influence, and automatically becomes a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council. The role also carries unusual weight because of the city’s national standing and the economic reach of its kashrut system.
The leading candidates are widely seen as Rabbi Zevadia Cohen, head of the Tel Aviv rabbinical courts and the candidate backed by Shas, and Rabbi Haim Amsalem, a former Shas MK who later broke with the party and has presented a more integrationist line on ultra-Orthodox participation in Israeli society.
Other candidates include Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Lau, son of Israel Meir Lau; and Rabbi Aryeh Levine, the longtime rabbi of north Tel Aviv.
Former IDF chief of staff and lawmaker Gadi Eisenkot also weighed in Sunday, framing the race as part of a broader national debate over military service and religious leadership.
“City rabbis, like Israel’s chief rabbis, must be leaders who carry a clear commitment to enlistment in the IDF and to national-civilian service,” Eisenkot said.
He called on mayors across Israel “not to lend a hand to the election of a rabbi who does not support IDF enlistment,” saying residents who serve in the army, both in mandatory service and the reserves, “deserve a city rabbi who represents them and the values of military service, mutual responsibility, and Israeli solidarity.”
The fight began in December, when a cross-faction group of Tel Aviv-Jaffa council members petitioned the High Court, arguing that the Religious Services Ministry had turned the legally required consultation with the city council into a hollow formality. They said the ministry had advanced its slate of representatives for the electoral assembly without giving the council enough time or information to review them. \
Flaws in the consultation process
Supreme Court President Isaac Amit froze the January 6 election, citing flaws in the consultation process, but did not rule on the broader claims against the system itself. After the consultation was redone, further challenges focused partly on the political affiliation of ministry-appointed representatives and partly on whether new candidates could enter the race once the election was postponed.
The court ultimately allowed the process to proceed, while the election date was reset to Sunday.
The result will determine whether Tel Aviv’s next chief rabbi is seen primarily as the product of the ministry and Shas, or as a figure with broader municipal backing. In a city where debates over public prayer, gender separation, kashrut, and religion in the public sphere have repeatedly spilled into the streets, the answer may shape far more than the internal workings of the religious council.