World Jewish Congress mourns passing of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef

The World Jewish Congress mourns the loss of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel and a sage of his generation, and expressed its condolences to Israeli and world Jewry.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder stated the following: "Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a scholar of great renown and a thoughtful and tolerant religious judge, left a lasting mark on Israel and world Jewry. As the founder of the Shas Party, he energized Israel's Sephardic community, securing for it rights and respect and leading it to political prominence. 

"His rabbinical ruling enabled the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry.

"A man of strong opinions who was not afraid of clashing with others, Rabbi Yosef engaged in many ideological battles. But few shaped the modern state of Israel as much as he did, which is why more than half a million attended his funeral.

"We extend our heartfelt condolences to the people of Israel and to Rabbi Yosef’s students."

Charismatic leader of Israel's Sephardic community

As a rabbi, Yosef's charismatic personality left an indelible imprint on the Sephardic community, giving a renewed sense of pride to Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent who had long been discriminated against at the hands of the Ashkenazi establishment of Jews originating from Europe. A former Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, the rabbi's outspoken opinions on matters sacred and secular earned him both respect and no shortage of outrage.

Born in Baghdad in 1920, he emigrated to Mandate Palestine with his family at the age of four. After years of intensive study he was ordained as a rabbi at the age of 20. In 1947, he was sent to Cairo where he served as head of the Jewish rabbinical court before returning three years later to the newly-founded state of Israel.

He continued to flourish in rabbinical circles and was appointed the Chief Sephardic rabbi of Tel Aviv a year after the 1967 Six-Day War. At the same time, he devoted himself to writing a book of religious jurisprudence, quickly becoming one of the most important contemporary decision-makers and winning respect from Jewish communities across the world. A prolific author who wrote dozens of books during his lifetime, he was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for rabbinical literature in 1970.

Three years later, he was named chief Sephardic rabbi of Israel, a post he held for ten years.

Known for his phenomenal memory, Yosef revolutionized the religious Jewish world by basing his teachings on a medieval Jewish sage. His vast knowledge and rabbinic standing allowed him to rule in a manner that at times appeared lenient: one notable ruling saw him allowing the posthumous cancelation of a marriage, enabling nearly a thousand women whose husbands were presumed dead in the 1973 Yom Kippur war to remarry.

Founder and leader of Shas

In 1984, after failing to ensure a second term as chief rabbi, he set up Shas, an ultra-Orthodox Sephardic political party, which campaigned for a return to religion to counter an establishment dominated by Ashkenazi Jews originally from Europe.

The party quickly established an educational network that not only provided free schooling but also imbued tens of thousands of Israelis with a sense of pride and belonging, many of them from poor backgrounds, who found identity and meaning through connecting to the rabbinic traditions of their ancestors who lived in Arab countries. Such was the empowering nature of the party's outlook that even today, most of its constituents are made up of those who are not ultra-Orthodox.

Shas' biggest showing was in 1999 when it won 17 of the Knesset's 120 parliamentary seats, and since then has been part of nearly every single government, often taking a key role in major policy decisions.  But in 2013, for the first time in decades, the party found itself and its 11 MPs in the opposition.

Politically, Yosef drew the anger of the right during the signing of the 1993 Oslo peace accords by arguing that Israel should give up land in exchange for peace, but as the years passed, he took an increasingly hard-line position towards any agreement with the Palestinians.

In recent years, despite his growing ill health, Yosef continued to receive visitors from across the political spectrum, including President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He was married with 11 children, one of whom is Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef who was named Israel's Sephardic chief rabbi in July.