The Chief Rabbinate and national religious authorities

The Chief Rabbinate was established in Mandatory Palestine in 1921 under British Mandatory authority, with two chief rabbis at its head, one Ashkenazic (the first being Abraham Isaac Kook) and one Sephardic (Rishon le-Zion), reflecting the duality of traditions. Taken over by the State of Israel after 1948, this body exercises legal authority over the personal status of Jews — marriage, divorce, conversion — as well as over kashrut supervision and the administration of rabbinical courts. Holding a near-monopoly in these matters, it is regularly at the center of controversies pitting Orthodoxy against liberal movements, and religious against secular communities, notably regarding the recognition of conversions performed outside Israel or by other movements. In the diaspora, religious authority is organized differently according to country, sometimes around consistories or national chief rabbinates, as in France or the United Kingdom. The question of the centralization of halakhic authority remains a major issue in contemporary Jewish life.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗