Chief Sephardi Rabbi in Paris Says Courts Are Weakening Rabbinic Authority

Rabbi David Yosef, Israel’s Sephardi chief rabbi and president of the High Rabbinical Court, delivered sharp criticism of Israel’s judicial system at a five-day European conference of judges and community rabbis in Paris. He said, "I am not afraid to say this out loud, the court is working to undermine and narrow the steps of the rabbinical courts," and argued that secular judges have no place weighing in on religion and Jewish law.

The fifth European convention of dayanim and community rabbis, organized by the Conference of European Rabbis, ended after three days of halachic discussions and Torah classes. Dozens of judges and heads of rabbinical courts from France, Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Hungary and Gibraltar attended, along with special guests from Israel. Yosef was the event’s main figure and had flown in specifically from Israel.

He told the participants that, just as a judge would not tell a doctor how to treat a patient, a judge has no role in religious matters. "The halacha was given to the judges of Israel, who know its ways and depths," he said.

The conference opened with a prayer for the peace of Israel led by Paris’s newly elected chief rabbi, Rabbi Shimon Senior. During the event, participants discussed complex halachic issues facing rabbinical courts in Jewish communities across Europe. On the second day, they visited the Beit Menachem school in Paris, where Yosef addressed hundreds of students with words of encouragement. At the close, Conference of European Rabbis chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin said the gathering reflected the responsibility of Europe’s rabbis and judges toward tens of thousands of Jews on the continent, and that the presence of senior Israeli dayanim strengthened the conference and deepened ties between rabbinical leadership in Israel and Europe.