Elie Abadie ( ar, ايلي عبادي) is the Senior

Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

of the

Jewish Council of the Emirates The Jewish Council of the Emirates (JCE) is the representative body of Part of the Jewish community in Dubai. Although the Jewish community in the UAE is older, the JCE was formalized with its constitution in 2018. The JCE has more than 100 activ ...

in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. Abadie is also the former Director of the Jacob E. Safra Institute of Sephardic Studies at

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU
on the Yeshiva Universit ...

, with an area of interest on the topics of

Sephardic Judaism Sephardic law and customs are the practice of Judaism by the Sephardim, the descendants of the historic Jewish community of the Iberian Peninsula. Some definitions of "Sephardic" inaccurately include Mizrahi Jews, many of whom follow the same ...

, history, philosophy, and comparative traditional law. He is a member of the board of the

American Sephardi Federation The American Sephardi Federation, a founding member of the Center for Jewish History, is a non-profit Jewish organization that strengthens and organizes the religious and cultural activities of Sephardic Jews, preserves Sephardic heritage, traditi ...

and the World Sephardic Educational Center, and co-president of

Justice for Jews from Arab Countries Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) is a political advocacy organization founded in New York in 2002, which was formed by the Conference of Presidents, the World Jewish Congress, the American Sephardi Federation, and the World Organization ...

. He is a former member of the Board and an Officer of the

Rabbinical Council of America The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) is one of the world's largest organizations of Orthodox rabbis; it is affiliated with The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, more commonly known as the Orthodox Union (OU). It is the main pr ...

(RCA), the Treasurer/Vice-president of the

New York Board of Rabbis The New York Board of Rabbis is an organization of Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis in New York State and the surrounding portions of Connecticut and New Jersey. The roots of the New York Board of Rabbis date to 1881 wit ...

, and co-chair of the Sadat Congressional Gold Medal Committee.

Early life and education

Family Origins

Abadie is descended from a rabbinical lineage dating back to fifteenth century Spain and

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

. Following the

expulsion of Jews from Spain The Expulsion of Jews from Spain was the expulsion from Spain following the Alhambra Decree in 1492, which was enacted in order to eliminate their influence on Spain's large '' converso'' population and to ensure its members did not revert to Jud ...

and later Provence his family migrated through Italy,

the Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, and

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. Shortly after the establishment of Israel in 1948, Abadie's parents were forced to flee

Aleppo, Syria )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

under government pressure. Abadie explained his parents' flight from Syria:

“My parents lived right next to the
synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
. They saw people enter the synagogue, pillage it, torched it, took out the
Torah scrolls A ( he, סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה; "Book of Torah"; plural: ) or Torah scroll is a handwritten copy of the Torah, meaning the five books of Moses (the first books of the Hebrew Bible). The Torah scroll is mainly used in the ritual of Tora ...
and holy books and burnt them. My parents escaped from their home through the backdoor as people tried to get into my parents’ house. They left and never returned.”

Abadie was born in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, Lebanon in 1960. The Abadie family moved to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

in 1971 after the

Palestinian Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and s ...

relocated its headquarters from

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

to Lebanon. They lived in Lebanon with no citizenship, as registered refugees, with identity documents reading "stateless." Abadie's father, a rabbi in Lebanon, had his picture posted on walls around Beirut claiming he was a Zionist leader, prompting his family's emigration. After moving to the United States in 1979 to attend Yeshiva University, he earned his

B.A Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

. in

Health Sciences The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to health sciences: Health sciences are those sciences which focus on health, or health care, as core parts of their subject matter. Health sciences relate to multiple acad ...

in 1983, B.S.C. in 1984 in Bible Studies, Hebrew Teacher's diploma in 1985, and a master's degree in

Jewish Philosophy Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconcile ...

in 1986 from Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University. Abadie received his ordination in 1986 from

Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS ) is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (YU). It is located along Amsterdam Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Named after Yitzchak Elchanan S ...

. He attended

SUNY Downstate Medical Center SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University (Downstate) is a public medical school and hospital in Brooklyn, New York. It is the southernmost member of the State University of New York (SUNY) system and the only academic medical center for health e ...

, where he graduated in 1990 with an M.D. degree. He did his residency in Internal Medicine, and later his fellowship in gastroenterology at

Maimonides Medical Center Maimonides Medical Center is a non-profit, non-sectarian hospital located in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Borough Park, in the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Maimonides is b ...

where he finished in 1995.

Tenure as rabbi

Abadie became a rabbi at Congregation Beit Edmond in 2001. He was the founding rabbi of Shaare Mizrah-Manhattan East Synagogue, the Head of School of the

Sephardic Academy of Manhattan The Sephardic Academy of Manhattan (SAM) is a Jewish preschool and elementary school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, whose plan is to provide pre-K through middle school services. The SAM School’s mission is to provide studen ...

, and the Spiritual Leader of the Moise Safra Community Center in Manhattan. From 2003 to 2017 he was the founding Rabbi and Spiritual Leader of the

Edmond J. Safra Synagogue Edmond J. Safra Synagogue can refer to: * Edmond J. Safra Synagogue (Brooklyn): A synagogue under construction in Brooklyn along Ocean Parkway & Avenue U. * Edmond J. Safra Synagogue (Manhattan): A synagogue located along 63rd Street in Manhattan n ...

in New York City (now Congregation Beit Edmond), one of the largest Sephardic synagogues in New York City. He is currently the President of JJAC (

) and a member of the governing council of the

World Zionist Organization The World Zionist Organization ( he, הַהִסְתַּדְּרוּת הַצִּיּוֹנִית הָעוֹלָמִית; ''HaHistadrut HaTzionit Ha'Olamit''), or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the ...

(WZO). He is the founder of the

and served as the Director of the Jacob E. Safra Institute of Sephardic Studies, at

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU
on the Yeshiva Universit ...

and college professor of Sephardic Judaism, history, philosophy, and comparative traditional law.

Senior Rabbi in the United Arab Emirates

In November 2020, after the signing of the

Abraham Accords The Abraham Accords are a series of joint normalization statements initially between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, effective since September 15, 2020. Mediated by the United States, the initial announcement of August 13, 2020, ...

, which normalized relations between the

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, Abadie moved to

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

to become the country's Senior Rabbi. He lauded the efforts of the Emirati Government for the reunion of two

Yemenite Jewish Yemenite Jews or Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from ''Yehudei Teman''; ar, اليهود اليمنيون) are those Jews who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. Between June 1949 and September 1950, the ...

families in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the capital and second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the centre of the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area. ...

in January 2021 after a separation of 21 years. In 2021, Abadie issued an official condemnation of the

Houthis The Houthi movement (; ar, ٱلْحُوثِيُّون ''al-Ḥūthīyūn'' ), officially called Ansar Allah (' ''Partisans of God'' or ''Supporters of God'') and colloquially simply Houthis, is an Islamist political and armed movement that ...

for imprisoning a Yemenite Jew, Levi Salem Marhabi, for helping smuggle a group of

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

into

; dubbing it as a

crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the c ...

Personal life

Abadie's native language is

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and is fluent in six languages. He is also a part-time gastroenterologist. Abadie has received the Orden Del Merito Civil, the highest civil decoration in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. He currently lives in

and has been married to Elise Eichler for over 36 years.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Abadie, Elie 1960 births 21st-century Sephardi Jews American people of Lebanese-Jewish descent American people of Syrian-Jewish descent American Sephardic Jews Emirati rabbis Lebanese Jews Living people Gastroenterologists Order of Civil Merit members People from Beirut