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…
(JTA) — On CNN on Tuesday, Don Lemon asked an all-black panel to comment on how they felt about Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner receiving a blessing from Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, during their visit to Israel to dedicate the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Yosef is under criminal investigation for making a bizarre…
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reportedly received a blessing in Jerusalem on Sunday from Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef — who was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League earlier this year for comparing black people to monkeys. Kushner and Trump, both senior advisors to President Trump, are in Israel as part of the American delegation…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi said Jews have a “moral obligation” to end the “cruel genocide” taking place in Syria. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef was responding on Sunday to reports that up to 150 men, women and children in the Syrian town of Douma, east of capital Damscus, were killed in a chemical attack…
The Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel called black people “monkeys” during his weekly sermon on Saturday evening. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef was addressing Jewish legal aspects of the blessing on seeing fruit trees blossoming, and whether one should bless one tree or at least two. In that context, he mentioned a blessing uttered upon seeing an…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said in his weekly address that he is opposed to a bill that would allow the death penalty for terrorists. Yosef said he was concerned about a Jewish terrorist receiving a death sentence, and referred specifically to the Jewish extremists who firebombed a Palestinian home in…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Sephardi chief rabbi ruled that it is permitted to smoke cigarettes that are not certified as kosher for Passover during the holiday. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said in a satellite television broadcast that cigarettes do not need to be certified as leaven-free for Passover, though some cigarettes manufactured in Israel or abroad…
One of Israel’s two chief rabbis said he would not recognize conversions performed by municipal rabbis despite a government directive validating them. A recording of Yitzhak Yosef vowing to block the conversions was published Wednesday on the website kikar.co.il. The Sephardic chief rabbi said he would withhold his signature, which is still required to complete…
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