You do not throw out the baby with the bathwater. The Chief Rabbinate helps discourage intermmariage in Israel which I am all in favor of. Jews should be discouraged from intermarrying with Gentiles for a whole host of reasons. Jews that wish to be intermarried are better off in the galus. For this reason alone I believe the Chief Rabbinate is worth keeping. Find better people to serve as Chief Rabbis.

bores me as it clearly has swayed from true Judaism. It has become a sort of cult with very little meaning as far as yiddishkeit is concerned. God demands us to be responsible caring people. He tells us to care for each other and to be respectful of each other. He asks very little of himself except to love him and to respect his day of rest. The Rebbes have a cult like following that is akin to idol worship. They ought to be ignored for they bring more grief than relief to people.

yo chaim, I am from LA, thank G-d I got out of that crazy place. I have live 37 wonderful years in Israel and only regret that I had to go back to visit my parents. Yes, it has gotten crazy here. No one can do anything with out the other giving his opinion of why it is wrong. The entire spirit of building up the country has been lost on the young generation who look only for their personal pleasures. The truth is that everything has good and bad, but lately everyone seems to look for the bad and ignore the good, as in the your case and the case of this author.

This is corrupt , that is corrupt and provide no examples. I will repeat again. As far as the Sephardim go, we all have the highest respect and estem for Rav Amar and all the Reshion Le Zion's has always been a respected figure in the Separdi community. We make up the majority of the Jewish people in Israel and the majority of those who are observant and traditional and of those that respect our Rabbis. Who on earth are the critics speaking for, not us..

the chief rabbinate used to work for the whole medina . now it serves the fundamentalists who have politicized it

That any mortal would have the audacity to suggest they are in a position of moral superiority in supernatural matters is outrageous. Politisization of spiritual matters is an affront to god and man.

If we had a sanhedrin making halachic decisions it would be better. You could make it out of all the orthodox sects and crazies like rav yussuf would be too old (according to halacha) to sit on it and would thus be excluded.

Judaism is a mideast religion, NOT a European religion. you must not be aware that Sephardim are from Europe! Eidut ha-Mizrach are from here.

The rules and traditions and fences around fences around fences are NOT from TORAH! I want TORAH! Not man made religion!

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi from 1993 to 2003, is on trial for issuing fake rabbinic ordination certificates to security guards so they could secure pay raises (Times of Israel dot com).

IT IS OBVIOUS THAT NECHAMA DUECK HAS NO KNOWLEGE OF THE HALACHOT AND TORAH STUDY.ALSO.HER GREAT LACK OF UNDERSTANDING WHY THE JEWISH PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW THE HALACHOT ACCORDING TO STRICT ORTHODOX WAYS ARE ACTUALLY FOLLOWING IN THE SAME FOOTSTEPS OF OUR FORFATHERS.HER BIAS AGAINST THE RABBANUT SHOW A HATRED AND STRONG DISREGARD FOR PRESERVING OUT TRUE DERECH HATORA!IT WOULD BE VERY WISE FOR YOUR READERS TO GET INFORMATION FROM PEOPLE THAT HAVE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF ISSUES ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY CRITICIZE RELIGIOUS PRACTICES.OTHERWISE YOUR CREDIBILITY AS A PROFESSIONAL MEDIA VENUE WILL SINK.IT IS OBVIOUS THAT SHE HAS AN AGENDA AND THAT IS TO DO AWAY WITH THE RABANUT.SHE IS PART OF THE TOMMY LAPID GROUP THAT TALKS BIG WITH HATEFUL MESSAGES AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS SECTOR AND AFTER CAUSING GREAT DIVIDE AND SINAAT CHINAM LIKE TOMMY LAPID THEY DIMINISH.WE NEED THE RABANUT,WE NEED MORE TORAH AND WE NEED HASHEM TO HELP US IN ALL OF OUR DEALINGS.WE NEED HASHEM AND HASHEMS MESSENGERS TO LEAD AND BE EZRAT HASHEM ALL OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE WILL SEET TOGETHER THE POWER OF HASHEM HOW MUCH WE AS THE JEWISH PEOPLE HAVE THE YESHUOT OPEN MIRACLES THAT HASHEM DOES FOR US ON A DAILY BASSIS.WE NEED MORE TORAH MORE TRUE TORAH LEADERSHIP MORE ACHDUT AND AHAVAT CHINAM.STOP THE HATE AND DIVIDE.SHALOM AMONGST US WILL GIVE ALL OF US TRUE BRACHOT AND YESHUOT FROM HASHEM!!!!!

This article would not even pass a 16+ exam. It offers little or no solid evidence. When Rav Kook left the pulpit of Machzikei Hadas in London to become Palestine's first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, he set the highest standard, BUT he was attacked by the Haredim, so even he could not please every one. Most Israeli Chief Rabbis have set a high standard in retrospect, and streams like Conservative and Reform have found few followers among native Israelis. Former Chief Rabbis like Shlomo Goren and Yisrael Meir Lau enjoy wide respect in the Diaspora, as does Ovadia Yosef [in spite of ...] The Chief Rabbinate and the established religion needs an overhaul. I hope the right candidates are elected to carry this out.

As far as corruption goes why just close down the rabbinate? Since the entire system/government is corrupt it should be all closed down.