Yitzhak Yosef, Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic Jews in Israel (Anadolu Agency)

Yitzhak Yosef is an Israeli rabbi, born in 1952. He holds the position of Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel and is considered an important religious authority in Jewish law.

He is one of the two most senior rabbis in Israel, as he represents the Sephardic sect (Eastern Jews), while the other rabbi represents the Ashkenazi sect (Western Jews).

He was famous for his intense hatred of Arabs and Palestinians and his racist statements towards them.

Birth and upbringing

Yitzhak Yosef, also known as “Rishon Lezion,” was born on January 16, 1952 in the city of Jerusalem in occupied Palestine.

He is the sixth son of the former Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic Jews, Ovadia Yosef, the founder and spiritual leader of the Shas movement, an extreme right-wing religious Israeli party. His father was known for his hatred of Arabs and his very racist statements towards Arabs in general, and the Palestinians in particular, and he passed this hatred on to his son Yitzhak.

Yitzhak Yosef is married to Ruth, the daughter of Kabbalist Rahmim Attia, and they have 5 children.

Sephardic Jews

The term Sephardic refers to Jews originally from Spain and Portugal during the Islamic era in Andalusia. They moved to North Africa, Asia Minor, and the Levant after they were expelled by the Inquisition in the 15th century AD, and many of them lived under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

But this term later became used to describe the Jews who immigrated to Israel from the Arab and Islamic world before and after the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948. They are a sect of Eastern Jews.

Study and scientific training

Yitzhak Yosef attended a Talmudic school within the independent education system.

At the age of 12, he began his studies at Porat Yosef's primary yeshiva in Katmon in Jerusalem.

After that, he studied at Yeshivat HaNegev in Netivot, and from there he completed his education at Yeshivat Hebron in Jerusalem.

Religious and practical experience

In 1973, after his father was elected to the position of Chief Rabbi of Israel, they jointly founded a religious educational institution intended for married men pursuing advanced study in Jewish texts, especially the Talmud and Jewish law.

In 1975, he was appointed rabbi in Jerusalem, and began giving lessons on “halakhah” (Jewish law) several times a week, giving lectures and classes in non-religious public schools, and among his duties was to promote religious education and take care of other Jewish affairs in the villages surrounding Jerusalem.

In 1980, he was qualified as a rabbi and judge, with the first class of graduates, by the Chief Rabbi of Israel and Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Shalom Misas.

With the beginning of the second batch, he was appointed head of a religious school.

In 1992 he expanded his yeshivah called “Hazon Obadiah” to accommodate boys of high school age and above.

"Yeshiva" means a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional texts, especially the Talmud and the Torah.

On July 24, 2013, he was elected to the position of Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, and the inauguration ceremony took place on August 14, 2013 at the official residence of the President of the State of Israel.

On July 24, 2013, Yitzhak Yosef was elected to the position of Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel (agencies)

His positions and statements

Yitzhak sparked great controversy with his positions and comments on numerous occasions. In March 2016, he called on religious Jews to keep their children away from secular or traditional family members because they may have a negative influence on them.

In the same month, his statements contradicted the directives of Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, regarding respecting the rules of engagement and not killing attackers after they surrender, as he said, “The soldiers must kill any attacker regardless of the consequences.”

He added: "If the attackers do not carry weapons, they must be imprisoned for life until Christ comes to identify the Amalekites, who can be killed after that."

The Amalekites in Jewish tradition and the Bible are an ancient people who lived in the Middle East, especially in the Negev region and southern Palestine.

They are mentioned as enemies of the Children of Israel and are considered a symbol of evil and hostility towards the Jews. Many legends and interpretations speak about battles between them and the Children of Israel.

In December 2016, he stated that joining the Israeli army or even registering for the National Civil Service “is not the path of the Torah” for women.

He said, "All the great sages across the generations, including all the chief rabbis of Israel, believe that it is forbidden for girls to go to the army... not only to the army but also to national service."

In May 2017, he compared secular women to “animals” because they wore clothing that he considered immodest.

In 2018, he described black-skinned people as “monkeys,” thereby angering Falash Jews coming from Ethiopia to Israel.

In January 2020, he faced criticism for describing immigrants from the former Soviet Union as religious-hating communists, and Netanyahu described his comments as “terrible,” considering the immigrants “a blessing to Israel.” But the rabbi defended his comments, indicating that they were politically distorted and that he meant Minority of immigrants.

In January 2021, he was subjected to investigation after he was caught at several mass gatherings in the last months of that year without adhering to any of the legal rules to combat the Corona virus.

He stated in June 2021 that science and mathematics are “nonsense” and that students should only study Torah because it is the most important.

His critics also accused him of encouraging reliance on government aid and charitable donations rather than promoting self-reliance.

In July 2021, he sparked controversy again by saying that “living abroad is better than living among secular Israelis.”

In the context of Israel's war on Gaza, his statements on March 10, 2024 regarding the rejection of military conscription in the occupation army sparked reactions within the government and the war council, as he stated that if religious people were forced into military service, they would all travel abroad.

The issue of recruiting the Haredim - who evade military service under the pretext of devoting themselves to studying the Torah - has always been a thorny issue in Israeli society.

 His extremist and racist attitudes towards the Palestinians

He was known for issuing incendiary fatwas against Arabs and Palestinians, as he called for the exile of Palestinians and any non-Jewish person. He also called for field executions of Palestinian resistance fighters immediately upon their arrest instead of imprisoning them.

In a Jewish “religious fatwa,” he incited the killing of every Palestinian carrying a knife, and not to fear and not care about the Supreme Court, adding that it was permissible, and to get closer to God.

He stated that allowing non-Jews to live in the Jewish state continues only because "the Messiah has not yet come."

His intellectual orientation does not differ from that of his father, Ovadia, who was known for his intense hatred of the Arabs, and went so far as to call for the extermination of them all with missiles in July 2001. He added in a “sermon” on Saturday in a synagogue in Jerusalem on the occasion of the Jewish Passover that the Arabs “must not be shown pity by them, and we must He bombarded them with missiles and exterminated them, and considered them evil and cursed.

In one of his religious lessons, he said, "Arabs are cockroaches. They must be killed and exterminated all of them," and described them as worse than "poisonous snakes."

His books are considered essential among large segments of Sephardic Jews in Israel and the world.

He won the Rabbi Toledano Award from the Religious Council of Tel Aviv, as well as the Rav Kook Award for these books.

Source: websites