Rabbi Abraham Elkanah Kahana Shapira (20 May 1914 - 27 September 2007) was a prominent rabbi in the Religious Zionist world. Rabbi Shapira had been the head of the Rabbinical court of Jerusalem, and both a member and the head of the Supreme Rabbinic Court. He served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1983 to 1993. Rabbi Shapira was the rosh yeshiva of Mercaz haRav in Jerusalem, a position he held since Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook died in 1982. His son, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, became the successive rosh yeshiva. Rabbi Abraham Shapira was born to a Jerusalemite family. His father was Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Shapira. As a child, he studied at Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem, later moving to the Hebron Yeshiva, where he studied under Rabbis Moshe Mordechai Epstein and Yechezkel Sarna. After his marriage, he was invited to join the Mercaz haRav yeshiva, where he remained ever since.

Even in his youth, Rabbi Shapira succeeded in establishing connections with great rabbis such as the Chazon Ish, Rabbi Zvi Pesach Frank, Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik and Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer. In 1956, he was appointed as a member of the Jerusalem Beth Din by the Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog. In 1971 he was appointed as Av Beit Din, and in 1983 he became Chief Rabbi of Israel. During the days of the Oslo Accords, Rabbi Shapira was one of the founders of an organization that declared that handing over parts of the Land of Israel to gentiles, even with a peace agreement, contradicted halacha and was therefore forbidden. In a controversial declaration, Rabbi Shapira, along with Rabbis Moshe Zvi Neria and Shaul Yisraeli, called for soldiers to not obey orders to hand over territory. Later in the months leading up to the implementation of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, once again Rabbi Shapira called for soldiers to refuse orders to take part in the execution of the plan that evicted Jews from their homes and gave away parts of Israel.

Rabbi Shapira died on the first day of Succot of 2007. On the preceding Rosh Hashana fifteen days earlier, he had been brought to prayers in a wheelchair and within days was hospitalized and did not recover. Tens of thousands of people took part in his funeral procession on September 28, on the eve of Shabbat, which started from the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva and wound its way through the streets of Jerusalem past the original location of the yeshiva in the Geula neighbourhood until the Mount of Olives cemetery where Rabbi Shapira was buried.

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu (1929 – 2010) was a prominent rabbi, posek and spiritual leader. He served as the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1983 to 1993. Rabbi Eliyahu was born in the Old City of Jerusalem, to Rabbi Salman Eliyahu, a Jerusalem Kabbalist from an Iraqi Jewish family and his wife Mazal. Salman died when Eliyahu was a child. In 1960, Rabbi Eliyahu became the youngest person ever elected as a religious judge (dayan) in Israel. He served as the Chief Rabbi of Beersheba for four years, and was then elected to the Supreme Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem, a position he continued to hold during his term as Chief Rabbi of Israel and afterwards. He was the father of four children, one of whom, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, is the Chief Rabbi of Safed. He worked for the preservation of the Iraqi Jewish rite and the opinions of the Ben Ish Chai, and opposed the attempts of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to impose a uniform "Israeli Sephardi" rite based on the Shulchan Aruch and his own halachic opinions. He published a prayer book called Kol Eliyahu based on this stance.

Rabbi Eliyahu was one of the spiritual leaders of the Religious Zionist movement and was an outspoken opponent of the Gaza Disengagement of 2005. He was considered somewhat controversial for his decades long support of what some characterize as the radical right of the Religious Zionist movement. Rabbi Eliyahu was a friend of Rabbi Meir Kahane and his family. He officiated at the marriage of Binyamin Zeev Kahane and delivered the eulogy at Rabbi Meir Kahane's funeral. He was a longtime supporter of Jonathan Pollard and became his spiritual mentor while Pollard was in prison. Eliyahu suffered from a heart condition. On August 24, 2009 he collapsed in his home and was rushed to the hospital while unconscious. He died on June 7, 2010 at Shaare Zedek Medical Center from complications related to his heart condition. An estimated 100,000 people attended his funeral in Jerusalem.

During Rabbi Eliyahu's term as Chief Rabbi between 1983 to 1993, one of his focuses was on attempting to reach out to secular Israeli Jews, giving them a better understanding of Jewish customs and their importance. He traveled extensively throughout Israel and the world, emphasizing the importance of Jewish education, Shabbat observance, family purity, fighting assimilation, and making aliyah. Eliyahu showed a willingness to go to secular environments in order to connect with other Jews, occasionally lecturing in secular moshavim and kibbutzim.

Rabbi Yisrael (Israel) Meir Lau, is the Chairman of Yad Vashem and Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Israel. He previously served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003. Rabbi Lau was born on June 1, 1937, in Poland. His father, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Lau, was the last Chief Rabbi of the town and died in the Treblinka death camp. Rabbi Lau was freed from the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945. His entire family was murdered, with the exception of his older brother, Naphtali Lau-Lavie, his half brother, Yehoshua Lau-Hager, and his uncle already living in Mandate Palestine. Rabbi Lau immigrated to Mandate Palestine with his brother Naphtali in July 1945, where he had learned in the famous yeshiva Kol Torah as well as in Ponevezh and Knesses Chizkiyahu. He was ordained as a rabbi in 1961. He is married to the daughter of the former Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv. He served as chief rabbi in Netanya (1978–1988), and at that time developed his reputation as a popular orator. Rabbi Lau is the father of Rabbi David Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Modiin.

On November 9, 2008, Rabbi Lau was appointed by the Israeli government as Chairman of Yad Vashem. On June 9, 2005, Rabbi Lau was reinstalled as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv after serving in this position from 1985 until 1993, when he was appointed Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, a position which he held until 2003. Rabbi Lau has often been characterized as the "consensus rabbi", and has close ties to both Haredi and Modern Orthodox Judaism. He is respected internationally by Jews and non-Jews alike, and is one of the few figures in the Haredi world who has managed to gain the trust and admiration of both the Sephardic and Ashkenazic population. In 2005, Rabbi Lau was awarded the Israel Prize for his lifetime achievements and special contribution to society and the State of Israel.

"Let's sit down together, and let's live together. We always knew how to die together. The time has come for us to know also how to live together." - Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, calling for co-operation and dialogue between all Jews (Jerusalem, February 14, 1999).