I got there not too late, there were no seats on the main level so I went to the women's balcony, where you could only see anything if you sat at the seats immediately next to the edge of the balcony which also were full. I had to stand in the aisle to take a photo.
RDS said that unlike what people are used to from where they came from, rather than having community rabbis who know their congregants, Israel has state rabbis. It would be impossible for the Jerusalem municipal rabbis to get to know even a small part of the people in Jerusalem and that's why no one minded that the jobs have been empty for years. Jews can only get married through the rabbanut within Israel (but can get married in other countries and it will be recognized here) and this didn't bother anyone when the state was founded. In recent decades, immigrants from the former USSR, from North and South America, and secular Israelis have created dissatisfaction with this system.
Rabbis are political appointees, they are not selected by the communities they are responsible for. Some don't even live where they are rabbis. He told a story of a mayor who did not want the rabbi that the minister (presumably the Minister of Religious Affairs) wanted him to accept, the minister replied that he would pay his salary, and anyway, you'll never see him. Rabbis represent parties, not the people. Cities with secular or national-religious majorities get non-Zionist rabbis.
Examples of how the system fails to work and imposes inappropriate stringencies:
A city turned out to not have an eruv although it once had one. The municipal rabbi said that there was no need for one, because a God-fearing Jew does not rely on an eruv. The result is more people violating Shabbat.
OU dairy products were not allowed at establishments with kashrut supervision from the Rabbanut, because it's not Chalav Yisrael. The basic level of supervision should allow that.
A story of a family of immigrants, the wife converted to Judaism before marriage, but she and her children were made to "redo" the conversion in Israel just to be safe. Years later, one of the daughters is a komanarit (no one in the audience had an English translation for this) in Bnei Akiva (the point of this, I suppose, is to show their integration into the mainstream national-religious community) and wanted to marry a Cohen. The same rabbi who had them do the re-conversion sent her to a religious court, that couldn't reach a decision but said, what's the big deal, let them marry other people. That might be reasonable in a community with arranged marriages but the ruling shows a lack of consideration of how other people live their lives. If we insist that everyone get married through the rabbis they can't act like this. Tzohar wrote a ruling that the original conversion was valid, the re-conversions were unnecessary, and so the daughter could marry a Cohen.
Telling a woman who is already living with her partner before marriage that unless she starts to go to the mikveh it will lead to cancer (and to couples who wait until marriage, that's OK?)
Questions from the audience.
Heter Mechiria? Yes. The pressure to be stringent is not just halachic but also comes from financial interests, such as importers. Rabbi Shlomo Auerbach said not to be stringent or restaurants will give up their kashrut supervision during Shmitah, and find they can get along with out it. This is already happening in Jerusalem. The national Rabbinate left the decision on whether to accept the heter up to local Rabbinates, and farmers went to the Supreme Court which overturned the decision. He also opposes buying Palestinian produce, says this supports murder (applause from the audience).
Why not let the Rabbinate go on as it has and have Tzohar as an alternative? To prevent the people splitting into two nations who can't marry one another.
What about Agunot? Judges can impose penalties against husbands who refuse to grant a Get but are reluctant. Doing so would solve 90% of the cases. He also supports prenuptial agreements but not conditional marriages or hafkaat kiddushin.
Religious pluralism? He is orthodox, will not recognize non-orthodox conversions or divorces but will allow choice. Shoham is 80% secular - really secular, Meretz voters (a suggestion to journalists - interview some of them) and he will support any request to set up a non-orthodox congregation with 40 signatures, which is also the rule for orthodox ones, but they haven't gotten that many. If they do he'll compete by attending simchas when asked, gave an example of a secular family having a Zeved Habat he is attending. This family, he says, will have Bar Mitzvahs for boys in a local orthodox shul instead of going to Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv.
Standards fro community rabbis including mentoring by community rabbis from outside Israel? Yes, but Rome wasn't built in a day.
How to influence the election process for Chief Rabbi? Lobby the members of the election committee talk to Bennet or whoever else you voted for. (I thought the answer was going to be about who would be on the committee, for example there's a discussion going on right now about whether to appoint women.)
A long speech/question, the speaker told how she cried when she found that gay marriages performed abroad were recognized in Israel, what can the Rabbinate do against this and against gay parades in holy Jerusalem? Not a priority, he doesn't plan to address it during his first ten years (which is the length of the Chief Rabbi's term, and they currently aren't allowed to be re-appointed, although there is talk of changing that so the current CRs can continue)
Will RCA conversions be accepted? Yes.
A comment - we have a Haredi CR where I live and we like him. RDS replied that he isn't against Haredi rabbis, he wants rabbis who care about people.
Organ donation? RDS has an ADI card, supports the procedure already approved by the Rabbanut.
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