Rabbi David Stav. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

David Stav

Founder, Tzohar

The self-styled iconoclast is municipal rabbi for the town of Shoham in central Israel, and founder of the Tzohar organization. Standing in the election for Ashkenazi chief rabbi this summer, if elected he has said he plans to change the basic concept of what the Israeli government rabbinate is all about. Already he has the support of several Likud lawmakers as well as several parties in the new government. Stav says he wants to make not only rabbinate offices more welcoming, but also remodel the Israeli face of the Jewish religion in general. “I am from the world of Torah and Zionism. I am not subordinate to the ultra-Orthodox functionaries or to the politics of the Haredi Torah world,” Stav says of what makes him such a unique candidate.