= Bezalel Zolty = Yaakov Bezalel Zolty (; June 30, 1920 - November 16, 1982) was an ultraorthodox 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 t ...

who served as the

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem and before that as a rabbinical judge on the Rabbinical Great Court of Appeals.

Biography

He was born in Stawiski, near

Łomża Łomża () is a city in north-eastern Poland, approximately to the north-east of Warsaw and west of Białystok. It is situated alongside the Narew river as part of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the capital of Łomża County and has been the se ...

, Poland to Moshe Aryeh Zolty and Sarah Rachel (nee Bledkowski). In 1927, at the age of seven, he immigrated with his family to British Mandate Palestine and settled in Jerusalem. As a child, he studied at the

Etz Chaim Yeshiva Etz Chaim Yeshiva (, ''Yeshivat Etz Hayyim'', lit. "Tree of Life") was an orthodox yeshiva located on Jaffa Road close to the Mahane Yehuda Market in downtown Jerusalem. History Etz Chaim Yeshiva was originally a Talmud Torah that was establish ...

, then at the

Hebron Yeshiva Hebron Yeshiva, also known as ''Yeshivas Hevron'', or Knesses Yisroel, is a yeshiva (school for Talmudic study). It originated in 1924 when the Rosh yeshiva, roshei yeshiva (deans) and 150 students of the Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael (Slabodka), Slabo ...

, and was considered a prodigy. In 1951, he began serving as a member of the Rabbinical Court in Tel-Aviv and then in Jerusalem, and in 1956, at the age of 36, he was appointed as a member of the Rabbinical Grand Court of Israel. He won the Rabbi Kook Prize for Torah literature twice in 1955 and 1964. Rabbi Zolty came out strongly against the lenient ruling of Rabbi

Shlomo Goren Shlomo Goren (; 3 February 1918 – 29 October 1994), was a Polish-born Israeli rabbi and Talmud#Scholarship, Talmudic scholar. An Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jew and Religious Zionism, Religious Zionist, he was considered a foremost Posek, rabbin ...

's about the allegedly

mamzer In the Hebrew Bible and Jewish religious law, a ''mamzer'' (, , "estranged person"; plural ''mamzerim'') is a person who is born as the result of certain forbidden relationships or incest (as it is defined by the Bible), or the descendant of s ...

brother and sister in 1973.

Chief rabbi of Jerusalem

In 1971, Rabbi Zvi Pesach Frank, the Ashkenazi rabbi of Jerusalem, died. Due to disagreements in the city's political establishment, the process of selecting his successor did not progress. More than a decade later, on

Hanukkah Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...

1971, prominent

Haredi Haredi Judaism (, ) is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted (Jewish law) and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are ...

rabbis in Jerusalem, and members of

Agudat Israel Agudat Yisrael (; Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Agudas Yisroel'') is a Haredi Jewish political party in Israel. It began as a political party representing Haredi Jews in Poland, originating in the Agudath Israel movement in Upper Silesia. It later be ...

, unofficially crowned Rabbi Zolty as the rabbi of the city of Jerusalem. In November 1977, Rabbi Zolty was officially elected Ashkenazi Rabbi of Jerusalem, after much lobbying by Rabbi

Ovadia Yosef Ovadia Yosef (, ; September 24, 1920 – October 7, 2013) also known as Maran (Hebrew language, Hebrew: מרן) "Our Master", was an History of the Jews in Iraq#Otoman rule, Iraqi-born Talmudic scholar, hakham, posek, and the Sephardi Jews, Sephar ...

and representatives of Agudat Israel, that led the

Israeli Labor Party The Israeli Labor Party (), commonly known in Israel as HaAvoda (), was a Social democracy, social democratic political party in Israel. The party was established in 1968 by a merger of Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda and Rafi (political party), Rafi. Unt ...

to support Rabbi Zolty. His contestant was

Dov Lior Dov Lior (; born 30 October 1933) is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi and political figure part of a far-right, nationalist movement for an ethnic and religious state. He served as the Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Arba, a Jewish settlement near the West Ban ...

, who at the time served as

rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva or Rosh Hayeshiva (, plural, pl. , '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and th ...

of Nir

Kiryat Arba Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba () is an urban Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, in the southern Israeli-occupied West Bank. Founded in 1968, in it had a population of . The international community considers Israeli settlements in the ...

, and a representative of the national religious community, and was supported by Rabbi Goren. Elected alongside him was the

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

Rabbi Shalom Messas. Rabbi Zolty served as president of the Yad Aharon Yeshiva, headed by his son-in-law, Rabbi .

Personal life

He was married to Esther (nee Wexler). Among their children: * Rabbi Aryeh - son-in-law of Yitzhak Hebroni, director of the Hebron Yeshiva (son of Rabbi ). * Hannah Bat Shahar - Haredi writer, married to Rabbi Yehoshua Eichenstein, head of the Yad Aharon Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He was buried in Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery in Jerusalem.{{Cite web , title=כרטיס קבר: יעקב בצלאל זולטי » הר הזיתים, ירושלים , url=https://mountofolives.co.il/he/deceased_card/%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%A7%D7%91-%D7%91%D7%A6%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%9C-%D7%96%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%98%D7%99/ , access-date=2025-05-19 , website=הר הזיתים, ירושלים , language=he-IL

References

1920 births 1982 deaths Haredi rabbis in Israel Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent Polish emigrants to Israel Chief rabbis of Jerusalem Ashkenazi rabbis Rabbinic judges Authors of books on Jewish law People from Kolno County 20th-century rabbis in Jerusalem Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives Hebron Yeshiva alumni Etz Chaim Yeshiva (Jerusalem) alumni