By COLlive reporter
2 Lubavitch rabbis were the leading candidates to become Chief Rabbi of Lod, a city in the Central District of Israel, which has a population of 77,223 people.
There were 15 candidates originally running for the position which is administered by Israel’s Ministry of Religious Services. It has been vacant for over 6 years since the passing of Rabbi Natan Ortner OBM.
Lod, famous for its proximity to Ben Gurion International Airport, has many Jewish residents from Arab and Muslim countries. Chabad has been established there in 1949 with the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim and the Shikun Chabad neighborhood.
The race for the city’s chief rabbi showcased Chabad’s wide influence well beyond its community, as the 2 remaining candidates were chassidim of the Rebbe.
Rabbi Yitzchok Mozgerashvili, a Lubavitcher chossid of Georgian origin, serves as rabbi of the Sharet-Ramet neighborhood in Lod. He had the support of the Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri, billionaire and philanthropist Mikhael Mirilashvili and his son Yitzhak Mirilashvili.
Rabbi Baruch Boaz Yurkowitz, Rav of the Chabad community in Lod, and Rabbi Yitzchok Yehuda Yaroslavski of Kiryat Malachi who heads Beis Din Rabbonei Chabad in Israel, supported Rabbi Mozgerashvili.
The second leading candidate was Rabbi Shimon Meir Bitton, a chossid of Moroccan descent, who is a Chabad Shliach and Rov of the Ganei Yaar neighborhood and the Od Yosef Chai community in the city. He was supported by Lod Mayor Yair Revivo.
On Sunday, the election body voted for Rabbi Bitton 14-10. “Today you are everyone’s rabbi – of all streams, with equality and love,” the Mayor stated.
Rabbi Bitton grew up in Kiryat Shmuel and learned in the religious Zionist school Aharon Haroeh, and later in the Chabad Yeshivos in Tzfas, Kiryat Gat and at 770 Eastern Parkway in New York.
26 years ago, after his marriage, he became a Shliach in Lod and has taken an active role in the spreading of Yiddishkeit in the city, along with holding rabbinical and kashrus positions in Lod and Ohr Yehuda.
“I am certain that the same spirit that he had in his community will guide him for the entire city out of humility and grace and he will being to unity, Torah and blessing for Lod,” the Mayor said.
