Sephardic Jews
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Israel News Sephardic Shas Party Struggles To Survive Death of Towering Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
Will Shas, Israel’s largest ultra-Orthodox political party, survive the death of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Sephardic religious leader whose towering authority enabled him to found the party and unite its followers behind his will? Some political analysts are casting their glances backward in looking for clues — specifically, to the 1994 death of the Lubavitcher…
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Fast Forward Bill De Blasio Slammed Over Condolence Message for ‘Racist’ Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
New York mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio was dragged into a tabloid fight over the legacy of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef after the liberal Democrat expressed his sympathies for the death of the Israeli Sephardic leader. The New York Post slammed de Blasio for the boilerplate condolence message, noting it ignored Yosef’s history of attacks on…
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Opinion Rav Ovadia Yosef Was Provocative Bigot
News of the death of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a towering religious and political figure in Israel, plunged millions into mourning. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Yosef “was imbued with love for Torah and his people.” President Shimon Peres cut short a meeting with Czech Prime Minister upon hearing of Rav Ovadia’s death. Ordinary people fainted…
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Opinion No Need for Directions to Rav Ovadia’s Funeral
(JTA) — I didn’t need to ask directions. Stepping out of the Central Bus Station, I saw them, men in hats and coats walking together slowly, a steady stream moving east along one of Jerusalem’s central thoroughfares to the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. At 5 p.m., an hour before the funeral, the streets were already…
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Fast Forward Throngs Stream to Mourn Rabbi Ovadia Yosef After 800,000 Attend Funeral
More than 800,000 people filled the streets of Jerusalem for the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Sephardi sage and political leader who died at age 93. Many of Jerusalem’s main streets were closed for Monday’s funeral, which is being called by local media the largest funeral in Israeli’s history. The attendees, equal to about…
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Fast Forward 500,000 Throng Streets of Jerusalem at Funeral for Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
More than half a million mourners turned out on Monday for the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, an Iraqi-born sage who transformed an Israeli underclass of Sephardic Jews of Middle East heritage into a powerful political force. Jerusalem’s police chief said the funeral for Yosef, who died earlier on Monday aged 93, was the biggest…
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News Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Kingmaker of Israeli Politics, Dies at 93
Ovadia Yosef, the rabbi responsible for turning religiously observant Sephardic Jews from a marginalized minority into one of Israel’s most politically powerful groups, has died at age 93. Yosef was widely revered as a kind of living saint during his lifetime. He inspired adoring love songs extolling his virtues, and his death is expected to…
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News Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Kingmaker, Dies at 93
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, an Iraqi-born sage who turned an Israeli underclass of Sephardic Jews of Middle Eastern heritage into a powerful political force, died on Monday at the age of 93, a hospital spokesman said. Dubbed Israel’s Ayatollah by critics who condemned many of his pronouncements as racist – he likened Palestinians to snakes and…
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