Aaron Leibowitz is an American-born Israeli rabbi, noted educator,[1] and local politician.In 2006 he founded and headed Yeshiva Sulam Yaakov.[1] In 2015 he became a councilor on the Jerusalem Municipality for the Yerushalmim party.[2] In 2012 he started Hashgacha Pratit, a kosher certification independent of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.[3]
Rabbi Leibowitz has attracted some controversy: In 2018 he handed over the kosher certification to the larger organization, Tzohar, remaining CEO. The organization began officiating weddings outside of the Chief Rabbinate, despite this being illegal [3] in Israel. In a second incident, he called the Chief Rabbinate "racist" because of their views on who is a Jew, and their use of DNA testing to determine Jewish status.[4]