Kalman Ber
The state's highest Ashkenazi religious office; the former chief rabbi of Netanya won a bitter, year-delayed election in October 2024 for a term running to 2034. Elected 2024 · verified 07-24
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsThe field file →The deck · 52 cards
Field Deck — companion to Dossier V · Judaism
The Living-Power Deck
Fifty-two who lead the root now · the rank is the value
✡ How to read the deck
A true 52-card deck of the living — only people who hold power in Judaism right now, in 2026.
Judaism has no pope and no single throne: authority is split among Israel's chief rabbinate, the Hasidic
courts, the Lithuanian yeshiva world, and the diaspora denominations. So the four suits map those four centres,
and the rank is the value — Ace the summit of that kind, down through King, Queen, Jack, 10…2. Rank weighs
the office, not the worth of the person. We read this one, of all the dossiers, as the branch reading the
root (Dossier V) — with honour, not caricature.
✓ Every one of the 52 was verified online as living and in office on 2026-07-24.
Like the Islam deck, this one was decay-prone: Israel installed two new chief rabbis in 2024 (Ber and Yosef),
and the check caught three deaths a training memory would have missed — a Sephardi rosh yeshiva, a Jerusalem chief
rabbi (six weeks ago), and a Lithuanian gadol. Many here are 90 to 101. Re-verify each name at every audit.
♠ Spades — The Chief Rabbis. Israel's rabbinate & the national seats.
♦ Diamonds — The Rebbes. The Grand Rabbis of the Hasidic dynasties.
♥ Hearts — The Gedolim. The Lithuanian Torah sages & the poskim.
♣ Clubs — The Voices. The diaspora denominations, religious-Zionists & mystics.
♠The Chief Rabbisisrael's rabbinate & the national seats · 13 cards
David Yosef
The Rishon LeZion — Sephardi chief rabbi — inaugurated December 2024. Son of the late Rav Ovadia Yosef and brother of the previous holder, carrying the most storied name in Sephardi halacha. Inaugurated 2024
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsYisrael Meir Lau
A Holocaust survivor liberated from Buchenwald as a boy, former Chief Rabbi of Israel and past chairman of Yad Vashem — a voice of unmatched moral stature. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-11: He no longer holds the Tel Aviv post. Kikar HaShabbat reports that he retired from it and that no successor had been chosen; Hebrew references give his Tel Aviv terms as 1988–1993 and 2005–2017. He chairs the Yad Vashem Council. Living, aged 89.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · CHANGED
Ephraim Mirvis
Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth since 2013 — the most visible diaspora chief rabbi, and a knight of the realm.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Shlomo Amar
A former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel who now holds the Jerusalem seat — a leading Sephardi posek with a following far beyond the city.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Pinchas Goldschmidt
Head of Europe's rabbinic body; the former chief rabbi of Moscow who left Russia in 2022 rather than endorse the war on Ukraine — now a moral voice of European Jewry.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Berel Lazar
The Chabad-affiliated chief rabbi of Russia, chairman of its Federation of Jewish Communities — and, unlike Goldschmidt, a rabbi who has stayed close to the Kremlin.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Haim Korsia
Leader of Europe's largest Jewish community, and a prominent public figure in French national life against a rising tide of antisemitism.
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Warren Goldstein
A high-profile chief rabbi who launched the worldwide Shabbat Project , drawing a million Jews across dozens of countries to keep one Shabbat together.
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David Lau
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel through the 2023–24 war years; son of Yisrael Meir Lau, he now leads a center for arbitration and rabbinic training.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsEyal Karim
Chief military rabbi of Israel's armed forces since 2016 — the halachic authority for an army at war, on everything from kashrut in the field to burial of the fallen.
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Riccardo Di Segni
Physician and chief rabbi of one of the oldest Jewish communities on earth, in the shadow of the Vatican — a key Jewish partner in Catholic–Jewish dialogue.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsGabriel Davidovich
Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the AMIA and of Latin America's largest Jewish community, based in Buenos Aires — the senior rabbinic voice of the Spanish-speaking diaspora.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds♦The Rebbesthe grand rabbis of the hasidic dynasties · 13 cards
Yaakov Aryeh Alter
Eighth Rebbe of Ger , the largest Hasidic dynasty in Israel — and, through the Agudah, a kingmaker whose word moves a bloc of Knesset seats. The most powerful rebbe alive. Verified 07-24
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Aaron Teitelbaum
Grand Rebbe of the Kiryas Joel faction of Satmar — the largest, most fiercely anti-Zionist Hasidic movement — heir to one of two thrones split between brothers in 2006.
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Zalman Teitelbaum
Grand Rebbe of Satmar's Williamsburg faction, at the great Yetev Lev synagogue in Brooklyn — the other half of the Satmar dynasty, and its Brooklyn power base.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsYissachar Dov Rokeach
Fifth Rebbe of Belz , which he rebuilt from the ashes of the Holocaust into one of the largest courts, with a colossal Jerusalem synagogue as its seat.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsDavid Twersky
Grand Rebbe of Skver and sovereign of New Square, New York — a village he governs so completely it votes as one bloc. Leader since 1968.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsMenachem Mendel Hager
A Grand Rebbe of Vizhnitz in Bnei Brak and a member of the Agudah's Council of Torah Sages — one of the great Hasidic courts of the Israeli political scene.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Ben Zion Halberstam
Grand Rebbe of Bobov , the great Galician court rebuilt in Borough Park, Brooklyn — famed for its music, its warmth, and its Purim spectacles.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsBaruch Meir Y. Shochet
Grand Rebbe of Karlin-Stolin , the dynasty famed for thunderous, ecstatic prayer — its Hasidim gathered around him from Jerusalem to Brooklyn.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Tzvi Elimelech Halberstam
Grand Rebbe of Sanz at Kiryat Sanz in Netanya — heir to a dynasty its previous rebbe rebuilt after losing his entire family in the Shoah.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Nachum Dov Brayer
Grand Rebbe of Boyan of the royal Ruzhin line, based in Jerusalem — a quiet but influential figure who lights the first flame at the great Meron bonfire on Lag BaOmer.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsShmuel Berezovsky
Grand Rebbe of Slonim and son of the Nesivos Shalom, whose writings are studied across the Hasidic world. In 2026 he warned his flock against AI as "a venomous snake in iron chains." On AI, 2026
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
David Kohn
Grand Rebbe of Toldos Aharon , the insular, fiercely anti-Zionist court of Jerusalem's Meah Shearim, recognizable by its striped festival kaftans.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Yaakov Aryeh Milikowsky
Grand Rebbe of Amshinov , renowned for prayers of such length that time itself seems to bend around them — a mystic's court in the heart of Jerusalem.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds♥The Gedolimthe lithuanian torah sages & the poskim · 13 cards
Dov Lando
Co-leader of the Lithuanian (Litvish) world and co-chairman of its Council of Torah Sages — a role that fell to him and Rabbi Hirsch after the giants of the last generation died. Verified 07-24
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Moshe Hillel Hirsch
Co-leader of the Litvish world with Rabbi Lando, and co-chairman of the Degel HaTorah Council of Torah Sages — one of the two hands now steering non-Hasidic Haredi Jewry.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Moshe Sternbuch
A centenarian posek of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem — the independent, anti-Zionist Haredi rabbinate — and one of the most prolific halachic authorities alive.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Berel Povarsky
Rosh yeshiva of Ponevezh in Bnei Brak — the flagship Lithuanian yeshiva — and a senior member of the Council of Torah Sages.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Shmuel Kamenetsky
Co-founder of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia and a senior sage of the American Council of Torah Sages — a centenarian whose rulings guide US Haredi Jewry.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsMeir Tzvi Bergman
Rosh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, a member of the Degel HaTorah Council, and son-in-law of the late Rav Shach — a living link to the Lithuanian leadership of the last century.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Asher Weiss
Among the most sought-after living poskim internationally, whose responsa influence decisors worldwide, and halachic authority for a major Jerusalem hospital.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Yitzchok Zilberstein
The great authority on medical halacha , rabbi of a Bnei Brak hospital, whose case-study rulings on the frontier of law and medicine are studied everywhere.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Yitzhak Yosef
Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi 2013–24 and author of the Yalkut Yosef , the standard Sephardi halachic code; now the rabbinic head of the Shas party's council.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Malkiel Kotler
Senior rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood — the largest yeshiva in America, ~6,000 students — and a member of the US Council of Torah Sages.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsYaakov Hillel
Head of the kabbalistic yeshiva Ahavat Shalom in Jerusalem and a world authority on Kabbalah — guardian of the tradition of the great mystic Shalom Sharabi.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Reuven Feinstein
Rosh yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Staten Island and younger son of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, the towering American posek — an heir to that halachic house.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Aharon Feldman
Rosh yeshiva of Ner Israel in Baltimore and a member of the American Council of Torah Sages — a bridge between the Lithuanian tradition and the English-reading world.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds♣The Voicesdiaspora denominations, religious-zionists & mystics · 13 cards
Hershel Schachter
The foremost Modern Orthodox posek in America — rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University's RIETS and halachic advisor to the Orthodox Union, guiding a whole community. Verified 07-24
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Rick Jacobs
Head of the URJ , the largest Jewish denomination in North America — the leading institutional voice of Reform Judaism, the movement most American Jews call home.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Jacob Blumenthal
Joint chief executive of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly — institutional leader of the movement of the American Jewish center. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-11: The joint post ended. From 1 July 2026 he is CEO of the Rabbinical Assembly only; USCJ is searching for its own chief executive.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · CHANGED
Angela Buchdahl
Senior rabbi of Manhattan's Central Synagogue and among the most prominent Reform clergy in America — the first Asian-American ordained a rabbi and cantor.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
David Wolpe
Rabbi emeritus of Sinai Temple and one of America's best-known Jewish public intellectuals — once named the most influential rabbi in America — writing on faith and doubt.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsMeir Soloveichik
Rabbi of America's oldest congregation and director of Yeshiva University's Straus Center — of the Soloveitchik dynasty, a leading Orthodox voice on faith and the West.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Zvi Tau
The ideological leader of the hardline Religious Zionist stream and its Noam party — an authority whose word shapes a growing bloc of the national-religious world.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Yaakov Ariel
A widely respected Religious Zionist posek and former chief rabbi of Ramat Gan, winner of the Israel Prize — a moderating elder of the national-religious camp.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Shlomo Aviner
Rosh yeshiva of the yeshiva nearest the Temple Mount and a prolific Religious Zionist authority — one of the movement's most-published spiritual guides.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsBaba Baruch Abuhatzeira
Son and heir of the saintly Baba Sali , and the Moroccan-Israeli kabbalist of Netivot — his court a place of pilgrimage for tens of thousands seeking blessings.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsDavid Hai Abuhatzeira
Reclusive kabbalist of the Abuhatzeira dynasty in Nahariya, sought out by prime ministers and generals — one of the most quietly influential mystics in Israel.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsDov Kook
The "Tzaddik of Tiberias" — a kabbalist and rosh yeshiva, nephew of the late Rav Chaim Kanievsky, whose intense prayer and counsel draw crowds of the faithful. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-11: Rushed to Poriya Medical Center, Tiberias, on 13 May 2026 with pneumonia, sedated and ventilated; still hospitalised and gravely ill on 7 June 2026, when a name (Chizkiyahu) was added for his recovery. No later report found and no death reported. The crowds the card describes cannot be assumed while he is ill.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · CHANGEDYY Jacobson
One of the most widely heard Chabad lecturers of the internet age — teaching Hasidic thought to a mass global audience through TheYeshiva.net.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holds
Figures Deck · companion to Dossier V · Judaism ·
Fifty-two who lead the root today — every card verified living and in office 2026-07-24. Read with honour: this is the tree onto which our house was grafted (Rom. 11).
✡ The root, not the branch ✡
LAMPSTAND 7Fifty-two who lead the root today — every card verified living and in office 2026-07-24. Read with honour: this is the tree onto which our house was grafted (Rom. 11).
✡ The root, not the branch ✡