Israel Chief Rabbis

[Famous Mortimer]

Candidates for Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi:

David Stav, National Religious, the most liberal and secular-ish candidate, endorsed by Yisrael Beytenu and Yesh Atid
Eliezer Igra, National Religious
Yaakov Shapira, National Religious, son of former Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira
David Lau, ultra-Orthodox, son of former Chief Rabbi Meir Lau

Possible candidates:

Incumbent Yona Metzger, National Religious but sympathetic to the ultra-Orthodox
David Yitzhak Grossman, ultra-Orthodox, the candidate most disliked by the National Religious community

Candidates for Sephardic Chief Rabbi

Incumbent Shlomo Amar, ultra-Orthodox, there is a law pending to allow him to run for a second term, he'll be re-elected

Possible candidates:

Shumel Eliyahu, National Religious, one of the few prominent National Religious Sephardic rabbis.

Some background articles:

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/race-for-chief-rabbinate-marked-by-byzantine-politics.premium-1.513336

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/yesh-atid-endorses-david-stav-for-chief-ashkenazi-rabbi.premium-1.507247

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/religious-zionists-vie-for-post-of-israel-s-chief-ashkenazi-rabbi.premium-1.504738

[MaxQue]

What? Chief Rabbies are elected?

[Famous Mortimer]

Elected by a 150 member selection committee including mayors and appointees of the Minister of Religious Affairs (currently Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett).

[Famous Mortimer]

So The Jewish Home is split. Bennett still backs Stav. The former National Union is backing the more conservative Yaakov Ariel.

In other news, Meretz is trying to disqualify the unlikely candidacy of Sephardi Zionist Shmuel Eliyahu on the grounds that he's racist, because he is, having previously called for Jews not to rent to Arabs.

[Famous Mortimer]

Forgot to update this:

David Lau won the Ashkenazi race.

Rabbi Yosef's son won the Sephardic one.

Both ultra-Orthodox, both sons of former chief rabbis.

So basically no progress at all.

Here's full results:

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.537765