The Jewish Agency selection committee meeting ended late Tuesday night without choosing a new chairman, as no candidate received the nine of 10 votes required to be selected.
There will be more meetings to decide whether to narrow down the candidates, and to see if an agreement can be reached before the Jewish Agency Board of Governors meeting that begins on February 27.
Sources revealed that even though the voting was conducted by secret ballot, the results made it clear that multiple members of the selection committee voted for the candidates they supported and not for other candidates, even if they did not oppose them because they wanted their candidate to win.
“They voted strategically, not professionally,” one of the sources said.
For instance, Reform and secular members of the committee tried to advance former Yesh Atid MK Ruth Calderon, while right-wing members of the committee tried to get World Likud chairman Danny Danon elected.
Calderon, Danon and former deputy minister Michael Oren were the three candidates who received the most votes, one source revealed.
It has been eight months since Isaac Herzog was elected president and left the chairmanship of the Jewish Agency.
The seven candidates in alphabetical order are Calderon, former MK Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Danon, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Oren, Belgian businessman Roby Spiegel and former minister Omer Yankelevitch. There is a chance they all will be rejected and the process will start anew.