Rabbi Aryeh Stern, the religious-Zionist candidate for the position of Jerusalem Chief Rabbi, said Sunday that if elected, he will strive to bring religious and non-observant populations closer together. In his first at-length interview since a committee of rabbis selected him as the favored religious-Zionist candidate for the long-vacant position (he spoke with Israel National News the night he was chosen), Rabbi Stern told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew service: "If I am chosen for the position, I will strive to bring the Rabbinate – which I believe should be a magnet – to the entire public, which will see it as a central spiritual leadership for everyone, and I mean everyone, but especially for that Zionist-religious public which lacks that leadership.” "I have the power and the will to reach the secular public and to contribute to a process of bringing the hearts closer together – and also, of course, the ability to reach the hareidi public,” he added. “The message that I bear is from the Torah, from faith and halakhah (Jewish law). I am no politician. The Torah is common to all of us and I have experience with the hareidi public that knows me - 'I dwell among my people.'” 'I can make the ends come together' “For several years there are have been no [Chief] Rabbis in Jerusalem and the need is urgent and important, and there is a need to bring to the Jerusalem Rabbinate rabbis who will be open to the public, especially the religious-Zionist public,” Rabbi Stern said. “There is a very large populace that makes use of the Rabbinate's services and there has been a vacuum for many years. The matter was not dealt with properly and it must be fixed. For instance – with regard to Jerusalem's kashrut, the eruvs and the mikvehs in the city.” "I have the ability to make the ends come together, by power of Torah,” the rabbi said. “The Rabbinate should be unifying, and it should be open to the public.”
