List of Chief Rabbis of Israel
No Name Term Notes
1 Abraham Isaac haCohen Kook ( 1865-1935 ) 1921-1935 Chief Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine
2 Yitzchak haLevi Herzog ( 1888-1959 ) 1936-1959 Chief Rabbi of Ireland 1919-1936 First Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel Father of Israeli president , Chaim Grandfather of the former leader of the Israeli Labor Party , Isaac
3 Isser Yehuda Unterman ( 1886-1976 ) 1964-1973 Chief rabbi of Liverpool and Tel Aviv
4 Shlomo Goren ( 1917-1994 ) 1973-1983 Chief Rabbi of the IDF 1948-1968
5 Avraham Shapira ( 1914-2007 ) 1983-1993
6 Yisrael Meir Lau ( 1937- ) 1993-2003 Father of David Lau
7 Yona Metzger ( 1953- ) 2003-2013 Later convicted for fraud and served prison sentence
8 David Lau ( 1966- ) 2013-present Son of Yisrael Meir Lau
List of Chief Rabbis
The Chief Rabbi of Israel was a religious appointment that began at the time of the British Mandate in Palestine, and continued through to the State of Israel. The post has two nominees, one for the Ashkenazi communities that came from Europe, and one for the Sefaradi communities from North Africa and the Middle East. In recent times the post has become more political than religious.