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NEWS
HaRav Yosef Sitruk Reelected Chief Rabbi of France
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
The offices of the Jewish Kehilla of France announced that
this past Sunday (26 Sivan), 56 year-old HaRav Yosef Sitruk
was reelected the Chief Rabbi of France by the General
Central Assembly of the Jewish Kehilla, for a third seven-
year term. HaRav Sitruk received 172 votes, compared to the
82 votes received by the other candidate, HaRav Mordechai
Ben Shoshan, the 46 year-old rav of the city of Nice. Seven
white ballots were cast.
The Chief Rabbi of France is the official spiritual
authority of French Jewry and the Jewish religion's
representative to the French government. He was elected by
General Central Assembly of the Jewish Kehilla, which is
composed of representatives of 232 local communities and of
a congress of rabbis, whose number was increased from 10 to
17 at Rav Sitruk's request.
HaRav Sitruk was born in Tunis the capital of Tunisia in
north Africa and he has been serving as the Chief Rabbi of
France since 1987. He is an Orthodox Jew, who fights against
assimilation and is very popular with religious Jews who
constitute a fifth of the Jewish community of France, which
currently numbers some 700,000.
He announced that he will be active on behalf of Israel, and
said: "I intend to double and triple the number of yeshiva
students in France and to establish a network of `twin
communities' between the small communities and the larger
ones, mainly in order to enable the younger generation to
found genuine Jewish homes."
Rabbi Sitruk also said he will seek to prevent the holding
of examinations in schools and universities on Shabbosim and
holidays, something which is very detrimental to religious
Jewish students.
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