Ya'akov Yosef ( he, יעקב יוסף; 18 October 1946 – 12 April 2013) was an Israeli

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 ...

and politician who served as a member of the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

for

Shas Shas ( he, ש״ס) is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily ...

between 1984 and 1988.

Early life

Ya'akov Yosef (Jacob Joseph) was born in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

towards the end of the Mandate era, the second child (oldest son) of

Ovadia Yosef Ovadia Yosef ( he, , Ovadya Yosef, ; September 24, 1920 – October 7, 2013) was an Iraqi-born Talmudic scholar, a posek, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1973 to 1983, and a founder and long-time spiritual leader of Israel's ultra-Orthodo ...

, a prominent rabbi. He was educated in the Porat Yosef and

Kol Torah Kol Torah is a yeshiva in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem. History Yeshivas Kol Torah was founded in 1939 by Yechiel Michel Schlesinger (1898–1948), born in Hamburg, Germany and Boruch Kunstadt, a dayan from Fulda, Germany. It wa ...

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

s in

Bayit VeGan Bayit VeGan ( he, בית וגן, lit. ''House and Garden'') is a neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem. Bayit VeGan is located to the east of Mount Herzl and borders the neighborhoods of Kiryat HaYovel and Givat Mordechai. History Bronze Age A 4,0 ...

. He was later certified as a rabbi at the Rav Kook Institute.

Career

In the early 1980s, Yosef became a member of the new

party founded by his father, and represented it on Jerusalem city council between 1983 and 1984. In

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

, he was elected to the Knesset on the Shas list, and sat on the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, the Education and Culture Committee and the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee for Traffic Accidents, until losing his seat in the

1988 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1988. Africa * 1988 Cameroonian general election * 1988 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1988 Kenyan general election * 1988 Malian parliamentary election * 1988 Rwandan parliamentary elect ...

. He later drifted away from his father's positions. In 2004, his father overruled one of Yosef's Halakhic rulings, which forbade soldiers from eating food provided by the army, condemning it as "inciteful." He was the head of the Hazon Ya'akov yeshiva (which is named after his grandfather), and the rabbi for the Givat Moshe neighbourhood in Jerusalem. His brother, Avraham, is the chief rabbi of

Holon Holon ( he, חוֹלוֹן ) is a city on the central coastal strip of Israel, south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the metropolitan Gush Dan area. In it had a population of . Holon has the second-largest industrial zone in Israel, after Haifa. ...

. His son, Yonatan Yosef, a prominent

, is the spokesman for Jewish Settlers in

Sheikh Jarrah Sheikh Jarrah ( ar, الشيخ جراح, he, שייח' ג'ראח) is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, north of the Old City, on the road to Mount Scopus. It received its name from the 13th-century tomb of Sheikh Ja ...

, and a prominent activists for the

Judaization Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the M ...

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the sector of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to the western sector of the city, West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Jerusalem was envisaged as a separat ...

. In 2013, Yonatan ran for Jerusalem City Council.

Controversy

On 3 July 2011, Yosef was arrested on suspicion of incitement to racism for his endorsement of the book ''

The King's Torah Yitzhak Shapira is an Israeli rabbi who lived in the West Bank Israeli settlement Yitzhar,Matthew Wagner"Shimshon soldiers to be hailed at 'farbrengen'" ''Jerusalem Post'', 12 November 2009 and is head of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva. In 2009, he pub ...

'', after he failed to report to the police for questioning, and released shortly thereafter. The arrest and questioning sparked protests among his supporters. In November 2012, during

Operation Pillar of Defense In November 2012, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Pillar of Defense ( he, עַמּוּד עָנָן, ''ʿAmúd ʿAnán'', literally: "Pillar of Cloud") which was an eight-day campaign in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, which bega ...

, Yosef said in a sermon in

Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after East J ...

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

: "The IDF /nowiki>Israeli_Defence_Forces.html" ;"title="Israeli_Defence_Forces.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Israeli Defence Forces">/nowiki>Israeli Defence Forces">Israeli_Defence_Forces.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Israeli Defence Forces">/nowiki>Israeli Defence Forces/nowiki> must learn from the Syrians how to slaughter and crush the enemy."

Illness and death

On 12 April 2013, at the age of 66, Yosef died in Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital around a year after being diagnosed with cancer. He was buried in the Har Hamenuchot cemetery.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yosef, Yaakov 1946 births 2013 deaths City councillors of Jerusalem Deaths from cancer in Israel Deaths from pancreatic cancer Israeli Haredim Jewish Israeli politicians Orthodox Jews in Mandatory Palestine Members of the 11th Knesset (1984–1988) Ovadia Yosef Politicians from Jerusalem Rabbinic members of the Knesset Sephardic Haredi rabbis in Israel Shas politicians Sephardi rabbis in Mandatory Palestine