The only candidate, Elie Korchia is elected at the head of the Central Consistory of France

Elie Korchia was elected with nearly 90% of the votes.

AFP - JOEL SAGET

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

The lawyer is notably known for having defended victims of terrorism in recent years.

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For the first time in 30 years, there was only one candidate for the presidency of the Central Consistory of France, which represents the largest Jewish community in Europe.

Elie Korchia was therefore elected with nearly 90% of the votes, a majority among the representatives of the 16 regional and local consistories.

The lawyer succeeds Joël Mergui, at the head of the Central Consistory since 2008 and who could not stand because of the limitation of mandates.

Far from being a new head, Elie Korchia chaired the Jewish community of Hauts-de-Seine for 25 years.

And since 2010, he was vice-president of the Consistory of Paris, which brings together 60% of French Jews, with a hundred synagogues and an annual budget of 26 million euros, ten times greater than that of the central Consistory. 

Elie Korchia is best known for having notably defended civil parties in 2017 at the trial of the attacks committed by Mohammed Merah in Toulouse and Montauban, and in 2020 at the Hypercacher trial. 

Now the privileged interlocutor of the public authorities for the secular aspect, Elie Korchia will co-direct the Consistory with the Chief Rabbi of Paris Haïm Korsia, re-elected last June.

He finds himself at the head of an institution established by Napoleon in 1808 and which embodies a traditionalist or even orthodox Judaism.

Indeed, if the consistory is considered as representative of the Israelite worship, all the sensibilities, in particular the liberal Jews, do not depend on it.

The institution deals with religious affairs, the maintenance and security of synagogues, the training of rabbis, the celebration of marriages and the settlement of divorces, the accompaniment of the deceased, Talmud-Torah courses, the harmonization of kashrut food rules ...

In his program, Elie Korchia intended "to 

", to be attentive to " 

 ", to "the 

" and to that " 

 ".

He also said he wanted to “ 

 ” in matters of religious divorce or “ 

 ”.

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