Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel. Image by Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav/Wikimedia

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi is under fire for calling immigrants from the former Soviet Union “Communist, religion-hating” gentiles.

At a rabbinical conference in Jerusalem last week, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef criticized Israel’s Law of Return for granting citizenship to Russians who are not Jewish according to Orthodox religious law, the Yediot Acharonot daily first reported Tuesday.

The rabbi accused the state of deliberately inviting immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel in an effort to weaken the political power of the haredi Orthodox public.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“Tens or hundreds of thousands of Gentiles have come to Israel as a result of this law. Gentiles who vote for all sorts of anti-religious parties,” Yosef said.

Israeli politicians and progressive religious leaders called for Yosef’s resignation, but Yosef said in a statement to Israeli media that his words had been “distorted.”

“I was clear and I say again: Alongside the majority of the welcome aliyah of hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union … there is a minority of immigrants who are not Jewish according to Jewish law who came due to the Law of Return,” Yosef said. “During my visits over the last month to the blooming Jewish communities in Russia and Ukraine, I was exposed to the strong criticism within those communities regarding the act of bringing many who aren’t Jewish to Israel.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Yosef’s remarks “outrageous” and said the immigrants from the former Soviet Union are a “huge blessing to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Yosef;’s remarks also were slammed by Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein, who immigrated from Ukraine in 1987, and by Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Liberman, who immigrated from Moldova. Liberman’s party is the political home of many Soviet immigrants.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount