Prior to the latest Chief Rabbinical selection process, seven eminent rabbis were
appointed to British Jewry's highest ecclesiastical post, although only six were
installed and saw out their terms of office. The manner of their appointment
was invariably coloured by intrigue, in-fighting and a host of other influences,
not least an increasingly potent input by the dayanim of the London Beth Din,
themselves not immune to strategic self-interest. Meir Persoff's scholarly yet
readable account of these seven appointments draws on a wealth of hitherto
unaccessed and unpublished material, and on the stories of many of the protagonists involved, including in fascinating detail those who, by fair means
and foul, failed to gain (or chose to reject) the coveted prize.