Yitzhak Yosef

Why Gadi Eisenkot is rejecting the haredi political embrace that once helped Netanyahu win

POLITICAL AFFAIRS: Yitzhak Yosef’s embrace – and Eisenkot's effort to distance himself from it – reflects Israel's shifting political landscape.

Amid reports that the Shas Party could be willing to sit with him in government, Yashar Party head Gadi Eisenkot did not rule out that option entirely. Here, Eisenkot attends the Sagi Laws for Equality Confrence at the Peres Center in Jaffa earlier this week.
Head of Shas party Aryeh Deri and Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef visit at the scene of suspected arson and vandalism at a Jerusalem synagogue which is often frequented by Rabbi Yosef, June 8, 2025.

Shas spiritual leader appears to open door to Eisenkot government, says Netanyahu ‘won’t repent’

 ARYE DERI sits in the Knesset plenum.

Shas spiritual leader orders support for coalition legislation in exchange for haredi-backed bills

Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, during a weekly teaching at the Yazdim synagogue in Jerusalem, on June 7, 2025.

Shas spiritual leader: Iran deal is punishment for draft dodger arrests, A-G is 'wicked woman'


Chief Rabbi: Leave phones on during Shabbat

Yosef also ruled that all synagogues at hospitals should be closed since it is hard for people to keep a distance of two meters (6.6 feet) while in them.

SEPHARDI CHIEF Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef

Despite coronavirus, chief rabbi permits prayer services of 15 people

The chief rabbi wrote in his ruling that the public should strictly adhere to the instructions of the health authorities

SEPHARDI CHIEF Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef

Know Comment: What’s Yitzhak Yosef’s strategy?

One must wonder what Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef was thinking when last week he launched into a tirade against non-Jewish Russian immigrants to Israel.

SEPHARDI CHIEF Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef

Tzohar rabbis: Happy, halachic, and in love with the Jewish people

The media are wrong: Politics isn’t always the answer – leadership is.

The national-religious rabbinical association Tzohar 370

‘Change Law of Return,’ says chief rabbi following FSU ‘non-Jews’ comments

The chief rabbi went on to defend himself, insisting that he had already said but would repeat that the majority of immigrants from the former Soviet Union were Jewish

Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak addresses a panel of world religious leaders in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Chief Rabbi Yosef calls on public not to use judicial courts

His comments generated strong criticism from liberal groups, including the Hiddush religious pluralism organization, which called for the position of chief rabbi to be abolished.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak addresses a panel of world religious leaders in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Chief Rabbi blasts world religious leaders for not condemning terrorism

“It is forbidden for us to be silent, silence is tantamount to identifying with terror.”

Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak addresses a panel of world religious leaders in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Political deal for Chief Rabbinate Council upheld with one exception

Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weiss, chief municipal rabbi of Kfar Haroeh was elected to council despite the lack of political support.

Chief Rabbinate elections 370

Meeting cancelled over women in the army

“The politics of the defense minister and the orders of the IDF chief of staff do not overrule the law”.

Women in the IDF

Bill seeks to extend rabbinical court oversight abroad

The new law would enable the rabbinical courts to do so even if neither spouse has citizenship or is a resident of the country.

David Azoulay