Chief Rabbi

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Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Use dmy dates Chief Rabbi (Template:Langx) is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, Israel has had two chief rabbis, one Ashkenazi and one Sephardi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Cities with large Jewish communities may also have their own chief rabbis; this is especially the case in Israel but has also been past practice in major Jewish centers in Europe prior to the Holocaust. North American cities rarely have chief rabbis. One exception however is Montreal, with two—one for the Ashkenazi community, the other for the Sephardi.

Jewish law provides no scriptural or Talmudic support for the post of a "chief rabbi." The office, however, is said by many to find its precedent in the religio-political authority figures of Jewish antiquity (e.g., kings, high priests, patriarchs, exilarchs and geonim).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The position arose in Europe in the Middle Ages from governing authorities largely for secular administrative reasons such as collecting taxes and registering vital statistics, and for providing an intermediary between the government and the Jewish community, for example in the establishment of the Crown rabbi in several kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, the rab de la corte in the Kingdom of Castile or the arrabi mor in the Kingdom of Portugal, likely influenced by the expectations of their Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican governments and neighbors.<ref name="Berlin-2011">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Similarly, in the 19th century there was a Crown rabbi of the Russian Empire.<ref name="Kaplan2010">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

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By country/region

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Albania

Name Assumed office Left office Notes Source
Joel Kaplan December 6, 2010 Incumbent Chabad shaliach, newly-created role <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Argentina

Sephardi (Syrian)

Ashkenazi

Austria

Belgium

Bulgaria

Chile

Colombia

Ashkenazi

Sephardi

Chabad

Cuba

Croatia

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Denmark

Ecuador

  • Menachem Mendel Fried (2022- )

Egypt

Estonia

The Far East

Finland

  • Simon Federbusch (1931–1940)
  • Template:Ill (1946–1951)
  • Mika Weiss (1957–1961)
  • Shmuel Beeri (1961–1963)
  • Mordechai Lanxner (1973–1982)
  • Ove Schwartz (1982–1987)
  • Lazar Kleinman (–1992)
  • Michael Asher Alony (1995–1996)
  • Moshe Edelmann (1999–2012)
  • Template:Ill (2012–)<ref name="MuirTuori" />

Chabad-Lubavitch

  • Benyamin Wolff (2003–)<ref name="MuirTuori" />

France

Galicia

Galicia is a historical region in Eastern Europe, that today forms part of Poland and Ukraine; the title of its Chief Rabbi was abolished on November 1, 1786 as part of the Josephinism Reforms.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Due to its being a center for Jewish scholarship, the Rabbi of Lemberg was traditionally seen as the Rabbi of Galicia in the era prior to World War II.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Greece

Guatemala

Honduras

Hong Kong

Hungary

Note that this list is not in chronological order.

Iran

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Ireland

Israel

Template:Main The position of chief rabbi (Template:Langx) of the Land of Israel has existed for hundreds of years. During the Mandatory Period, the British recognized the chief rabbis of the Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities, just as they recognized the Mufti of Jerusalem. The offices continued after statehood was achieved. Haredi Jewish groups (such as Edah HaChareidis) do not recognize the authority of the Chief Rabbinate. They usually have their own rabbis who do not have any connection to the state rabbinate.

Under current Israeli law, the post of Chief Rabbi exists in only four cities (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheba). In other cities there may be one main rabbi to whom the other rabbis of that city defer, but that post is not officially the "Chief Rabbi".

Many of Israel's chief rabbis were previously chief rabbis of Israeli cities. Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2

Sephardi

  • Moshe Galante (the Younger) (1665–1689)
  • Moshe ibn Habib (1689–1696)
  • Moshe Hayun
  • Abraham ben David Yitzhaki (1715–1722)
  • Binyamin Maali
  • Elazar ben Yaacob Nahum (1730–1748)
  • Nissim Mizrahi (1748–1754)
  • Israel Yaacob Algazy (1754–1756)
  • Raphael Samuel Meyuchas (1756–1791)
  • Haim Raphael Abraham ben Asher (1771–1772)
  • Yom Tov Algazy (1772–1802)
  • Moshe Yosef Mordechai Meyuchas (1802–1805)
  • Yaacob Moshe Ayash al-Maghrebi (1806–1817)
  • Jacob Coral (1817–1819)
  • Raphael Yosef Hazzan (1819–1822)
  • Yom Tov Danon (1822–1824)
  • Salomon Moshe Suzin (1824–1836)
  • Yonah Moshe Navon (1836–1841)
  • Yehudah Raphael Navon (1841–1842)
  • Chaim Abraham Gagin (1842–1848)
  • Isaac Kovo (1848–1854)
  • Haim Nissim Abulafia (1854–1861)
  • Haim David Hazan (1861–1869)
  • Avraham Ashkenazi (1869–1880)
  • Raphael Meir Panigel (1880–1892)
  • Yaacob Shaul Elyashar (1893–1906)
  • Yaacob Meir (1906)
  • Eliyah Moshe Panigel (1907–1909)
  • Nahman Batito (1909–1911)
  • Moshe Franco (1911–1915)
  • Haim Moshe Elyashar (1914–1915)
  • Nissim Yehudah Danon (1915–1921)
  • Yaacob Meir (1921–1939)
  • Benzion Uziel (1939–1954)
  • Yitzhak Nissim (1955–1973)
  • Ovadia Yosef (1973–1983)
  • Mordechai Eliyahu (1983–1993)
  • Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron (1993–2003)
  • Shlomo Amar (2003–2013)
  • Yitzhak Yosef (2013–2024)
  • David Yosef (2024–Template:As of)

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Ashkenazi

Military Rabbinate

Japan

Latvia

Lebanon

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Mexico

  • Shlomo Tawil (1998–Present)

North Macedonia

  • Avi Kozma

Morocco

Nepal

Norway

Panama

Peru

<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Poland

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Military rabbinate

Romania

Russia

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Serbia

Singapore

Slovakia

South Africa

Spain

The following are Chief Rabbis of the Jewish Community of Madrid (CJM):

  • Baruj Garzon (1968–1978), the first Chief Rabbi in Spain since the expulsion in 1492
  • Yehuda Benasouli (1978–1997)
  • Moshe Bendahan (1997–Template:As of)

Chabad-Lubavitch

  • Menachem Naftalin (2025-)

Sudan

  • Solomon Malka (1906–1949)
  • Haim Simoni (1950–1952)
  • Massoud El-Baz (1956–1965 by which time the Jewish community in Sudan had declined so dramatically that they could not afford to pay a Rabbi)<ref name="Rachel Abboudi">Template:Cite web</ref>

Syria

  • Yom Tov Yedid (1960–1982), moved to the United States in 1982 and died 27 July 2016 in the United States

Thailand

Transylvania (before 1918)

Note: The chief rabbi of Transylvania was generally the rabbi of the city of Alba Iulia.

  • Joseph Reis Auerbach (d. 1750)
  • Shalom Selig ben Saul Cohen (1754–1757)
  • Johanan ben Isaac (1758–1760)
  • Benjamin Ze'eb Wolf of Cracow (1764–1777)
  • Moses ben Samuel Levi Margaliot (1778–1817)
  • Menahem ben Joshua Mendel (1818–23)
  • Ezekiel Paneth (1823–1843)
  • Abraham Friedmann (d. 1879), last chief rabbi of Transylvania

Tunisia

Turkey

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Chabad

Uganda

Ukraine

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United Arab Emirates

  • Levi Duchman (2015-Template:As of) first resident rabbi to the UAE, appointed Chabad Shaliach to the UAE in 2020, making him the first Chabad Shaliach in a Gulf country. Directs the Jewish Community Center of the UAE. Rabbi Yehuda Sarna is the current Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Council of the Emirates.

United Kingdom and Commonwealth

Presbyter Judaeorum (England)

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Ashkenazi chief rabbis

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Spanish and Portuguese community Hahamim/senior rabbis

The Sephardi Jews in the United Kingdom are mainly members of independent synagogues. There is no single rabbi recognised by them as a chief rabbi. The Spanish and Portuguese community, however, consists of several synagogues, charities, a beth din and a kashruth authority. These are under the leadership of an ecclesiastical head. Historically, the individual who fills this role is recognised as a senior rabbi of Anglo Jewry, being the leader of the oldest Jewish community in the country. The Senior Rabbi was traditionally given the title, Haham, meaning "wise one". Since 1918, however, only Solomon Gaon was given this title. The official title of the holder of this office is now The Senior Rabbi of the S&P Sephardi Community of the United Kingdom.

United States

A chief rabbinate never truly developed within the United States for a number of different reasons. While Jews first settled in the United States in 1654 in New York City, rabbis did not appear in the United States until the mid-nineteenth century. This lack of rabbis, coupled with the lack of official colonial or state recognition of a particular sect of Judaism as official effectively led to a form of congregationalism amongst American Jews. This did not stop others from trying to create a unified American Judaism, and in fact, some chief rabbis developed in some American cities despite lacking universal recognition amongst the Jewish communities within the cities (for examples see below). However, Jonathan Sarna argues that those two precedents, as well as the desire of many Jewish immigrants to the US to break from an Orthodox past, effectively prevented any effective Chief Rabbi in America.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Uruguay

  • Jaime Spector (1931–1937)
  • Aaron Milevsky (1937–1943)
  • Aaron Laschover (1943–1967)
  • Nechemia Berman (1970–1993)
  • Eliahu Birenbaum (1994–1999)
  • Yosef Bittón (1999–2002)
  • Mordejai Maarabi (2002–2009)
  • Shai Froindlich (2009–2010)
  • Isaac Fadda (2011–2012)
  • Ben-Tzion Spitz (2013–2016)
  • Max Yojanan Godet (2017–present)

Uzbekistan

Venezuela

By city

Alexandria, Egypt

Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Ashkenazi

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Sephardi

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Antwerp, Belgium

Baltimore, Maryland – United States

  • Abraham N. Schwartz (d. 1937)
  • Joseph H. Feldman (retired 1972, d. 1992)

Birobidzhan, Russia

Brussels, Belgium

Budapest, Hungary

Caracas, Venezuela

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Ashkenazi

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Sephardi

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Chicago, Illinois – United States

  • Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky known as the Ridbaz, served as chief rabbi of the Russian-American congregations in the city 1903–1905.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Frankfurt, Germany

  • Menachem Halevi Klein|Menachem Klein
  • Nathan HaKohen Adler

Gateshead, United Kingdom

The Hague, Netherlands

  • Saul Isaac Halevi (1748–1785)
  • Tobias Tal (1895–1898)
  • Dov Yehuda Schochet (1946–1952)

Haifa, Israel

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Ashkenazi

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Sephardi

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Hannover, Germany

Hebron, West Bank

Helsinki, Finland

  • Naftali Amsterdam (1867–1875)
  • Avrohom Schain (1876–1881)
  • Abraham Werner-Homa (1881–1891)
  • Shmuel Noson Bukantz (1892–1924)
  • Scholem Triestman (1928–1929)<ref name="MuirTuori">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Hoboken, New Jersey – United States

Jerusalem

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Sephardi

  • Levi Ibn Habib
  • David Ibn Abi Zimra
  • Moshe Galante I
  • Haim Vital
  • Betzalel Ashkenasi
  • Gedalia Cordovero
  • Isaac Gaon
  • Israel Benjamin
  • Yaacov Tzemah
  • Shemuel Garmison
  • Moshe Galante II (1665–1689)
  • Moshe Ibn Habib (1689–1696)
  • Moshe Hayun
  • Abraham ben David Yitzchaki (1715–1722)
  • Binyamin Maali
  • Elazar ben Yaacob Nahum (1730–1748)
  • Nissim Mizrahi (1748–1754)
  • Israel Yaacob Algazy (1754–1756)
  • Raphael Samuel Meyuchas (1756–1791)
  • Haim Raphael Abraham ben Asher (1771–1772)
  • Yom Tov Algazy (1772–1802)
  • Moshe Yosef Mordechai Meyuchas (1802–1805)
  • Yaacob Moshe Ayash al-Maghrebi (1806–1817)
  • Jacob Coral (1817–1819)
  • Raphael Yosef Hazzan (1819–1822)
  • Yom Tov Danon (1822–1824)
  • Salomon Moshe Suzin (1824–1836)
  • Yonah Moshe Navon (1836–1841)
  • Yehudah Raphael Navon (1841–1842)
  • Haim Abraham Gagin (1842–1848)
  • Isaac Kovo (1848–1854)
  • Haim Nissim Abulafia (1854–1861)
  • Haim David Hazan (1861–1869)
  • Abraham Ashkenasi (1869–1880)
  • Raphael Meir Panigel (1880–1892)
  • Yaacob Shaul Elyashar (1893–1906)
  • Yaacob Meir (1906)
  • Eliyah Moshe Panigel (1907–1909)
  • Nahman Batito (1909–1911)
  • Moshe Franco (1911–1915)
  • Haim Moshe Elyashar (1914–1915)
  • Nissim Yehudah Danon (1915–1921)
  • Yaacob Meir (1921–1939)
  • Chalom Messas (1978–2003)
  • Shlomo Amar (2014–Template:As of)

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Ashkenazi

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Edah HaChareidis

Note: The Edah HaChareidis is unaffiliated with the State of Israel. It is a separate, independent religious community with its own Chief Rabbis, who are viewed, in the Haredi world, as being the Chief Rabbis of Jerusalem.

Kyiv, Ukraine

Krakow, Poland

Leiden, Netherlands

Leeuwarden, Friesland, Netherlands

Milan, Italy

Modi'in Illit, Israel

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

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Ashkenazi

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Sephardi

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Moscow, Russia

Munich, Germany

  • Yitshak Ehrenberg (1989–1997)<ref name="jg-berlin1">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Pinchos Biberfeld, moved back to Germany from where he had emigrated to Israel over 50 years earlier. (1980–1999)
  • Steven Langnas, first German (descendance) Chief Rabbi and Av Beth Din of Munich (1999–2011)

Netherlands – Inter-Provincial Chief rabbinate

New York, New York – United States

  • Jacob Joseph (1840–1902) was the only true Ashkenazi chief rabbi of New York City; there was never a Sephardi chief rabbi, although Dr. David DeSola Pool acted as a leader among the Sepharadim and was also respected as such. Others it has been said claimed the title of Chief Rabbi; eventually, the title became worthless through dilution.Template:Citation needed
  • Chaim Jacob Wiedrewitz was the Chassidic chief rabbi of New York and Pennsylvania;Template:Citation needed he was previously the Chassidic Rav of Moscow and was officially called as "The Moskover Rav", immigrated in 1893 and died in 1911, he's buried in the Chabad society of the Bayside Cemetery in Ozone Park NY.
  • Jacob S. Kassin was the Chief Rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community of New York 1930–1995.Template:Citation needed
  • Leibish Wolowsky was the chief rabbi of the Galician community of NYC 1888–1913, he was previously the rabbi of Sambor, Austria and immigrated to the US in 1888. He died in 1913 and is buried in the Achum Ahuvim of Reizow at the Mount Zion Cemetery in Maspeth NY.Template:Citation needed
  • Avrohom Aharon Yudelevitz who was previously the rav of Manchester, England was accepted in 1919 as the chief rabbi of the Jewish Arbitration Court of NYC. He authored many books on Jewish law and responsa. He died in 1930 and is buried in family plot at the Bayside cemetery in Ozone Park NY.Template:Citation needed

Nové Zámky, Slovakia

Paris, France

Rome, Italy

Rotterdam, Netherlands

Shanghai, China

Sofia, Bulgaria

St. Louis, Missouri – United States

Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

Sephardi

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Vienna, Austria

Warsaw, Poland

Würzburg, Germany

Zagreb, Croatia

"Grand Rabbi"

The term "Grand Rabbi" is sometimes used to style a Hasidic Rebbe, particularly on a letterhead, when written in English.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

References

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