France - France's Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia re-elected with 75% of the votes

Published on June 7th in The Jerusalem Post

Some 189 votes were counted in his favor out of more than 250 voters, providing him the two-thirds majority needed from the first round.

“We must be united,” newly re-elected Korsia declared at the end of the ballot, adding that “I will work with everyone.”
The vote was held at the Central Israelite Consistory in Paris and and gathered 254 major voters representative of Jewish communities from all regions of France and consisted of about 25 rabbis.
Two other rabbis ran for the title against him;. Laurent Berros, 54, rabbi of Sarcelles and Val d’Oise, who obtained 34 votes; and Mikaël Journo, 47, rabbi of a synagogue in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, who got 30 votes.
Korsia, who started his career as rabbi of Reims, became Jewish chaplain of the French Air Force in 2000 and continued in this position until he was promoted to chaplain of the French Armed Forces from 2007 to 2014, when he was first elected as France Chief Rabbi.

Following the General Consistory line, the highest religious institution in France established by Napoleon himself in 1808 to represent the Jews of France, Korsia is very attached to the dialogue between the Jewish community and the republican, secular institutions of the country and the other religions.

France's Jewish community represents Europe's largest with around 500,000 French Jews, and third largest in the world after Israel and the United States.
Following Kosia's re-election, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), said that “On behalf of the CER, I offer the warmest congratulations to our First Vice-President, Grand Rabbin Haim Korsia, on his re-election as chief rabbi of France."

"France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish community and Rabbi Korsia’s leadership during these past seven years has navigated his community through a worrying rise of Jew hatred, crises of terrorism and the Covid pandemic," added Rabbi Goldschmidt. "It has been a huge privilege to work closely with Rabbi Korsia on pan-European issues at the CER and we look forward to his continued participation.”