Israeli chief rabbi inaugurates Latin American Rabbinical Conference

Tel Aviv [Israel], August 3 (ANI/TPS): Israel’s chief rabbi was in Bueno Aires on Wednesday to inaugurate the Latin American Rabbinical Conference.

The founding Torah scroll was signed in Argentina’s capital in the presence of Rabbi David Lau, who has served as Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi since 2013.
A total of 30 rabbis from different countries in the region participated in the ceremony. The conference includes the chief rabbis of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Ecuador.

Rabbi Eliyahu Hamara, the president of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) and a member of the European Conference of Rabbis, initiated and founded the conference.

“The founding of the Latin American Rabbinical Conference on the 10th of Av is so important and significant because it basically means that the Torah in all of Latin America is one Torah, which will be connected to the rabbinical organizations of the world, to the chief rabbinate in Israel,” said Lau.

“This is a conference that will increase the honor of heaven and also give strength to communities in distant places. The rabbis will be part of all the rabbis in the whole world and thus the Latin American Rabbinical Conference will be able to preserve the status of Judaism in a better way,” he added.

Rabbi Lau serves alongside Israel’s Chief Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.

Israeli chief rabbis serve 10-year terms and often represent Israel abroad. The Chief Rabbinate has jurisdiction over issues of personal status, such as marriage, divorce and conversions, as well as burials, kosher certification, holy sites, rabbinical courts and religious seminaries known as yeshivas.

Successors for both Chief Rabbis will be chosen in the spring of 2024.