Eliyahu Moshe Panigel (; 1850–1919) was the

Sephardi 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 ...

chief rabbi of the Ottoman Empire, Zion and Jerusalem. Orphaned at a young age, Panigel was brought up by his uncle

Raphael Meir Panigel Raphael Meir ben Yehuda Panigel (; 1804–1893) was the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. Panigel was born in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria, but his family emigrated to the Land of Israel when he was a child. In 18 ...

, the ''

rishon le-Zion Rishon LeZion ( , "First to Zion") is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area. Founded in 1882 by Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who were pa ...

'' (Sephardi chief rabbi of Zion). He was sent to Algeria to collect funds for the Misgav Ladach Hospital in Jerusalem and to North Africa, Italy, India, the Caucasus and Bokhara, by the Jerusalem community. After the death of

Jacob Saul Elyashar Yaakov Shaul Elyashar (; 1 June 1817 – 21 July 1906), also known as Yisa Berakhah, was a 19th-century Sephardi rabbi in Ottoman Syria. He became Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Palestine in 1893. Biography and rabbinic career Yaakov Shaul Elyashar w ...

in 1906, a dispute arose within the community as to who should be appointed his successor. The more modern members supported

Jacob Meir Yaakov Meir CBE (; 1856–1939), was an Orthodox rabbi, and the first Sephardic Chief Rabbi appointed under the British Mandate of Palestine. A Talmudic scholar, fluent in Hebrew as well as five other languages, he enjoyed a reputation as one of ...

while the more traditional supported Chaim Moses Elyashar. Meir assumed the position for a few months before he was deposed by the Sultan of Turkey. In 1907 Panigel was chosen as ''

hacham bashi ''Hakham Bashi - חכם באשי'' (, , ; ; translated into French as: khakham-bachi) is the Turkish name for the Chief Rabbi of the nation's History of the Jews in Turkey, Jewish community. In the time of the Ottoman Empire it was also used for ...

'' and ''rishon le-Zion'' but he was forced to resign 1908. Rabbi Nachman Batito subsequently served as deputy chief rabbi from 1909 to 1911, whereupon Rabbi Moses Franco of Rhodes was appointed chief rabbi until 1915. When Jerusalem was captured by the British in 1917, Panigel publicly welcomed

General Allenby Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, (23 April 1861 – 14 May 1936) was a senior British Army officer and imperial governor. He fought in the Second Boer War and also in World War I, in which he led the Britis ...

and the

Jewish Legion The Jewish Legion was a series of battalions of Jewish soldiers who served in the British Army during the First World War. Some participated in the British conquest of Palestine from the Ottomans. The formation of the battalions had several ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Panigel, Eliyahu Moshe Rishon LeZion (rabbi) 20th-century rabbis from the Ottoman Empire Sephardi rabbis from Ottoman Palestine 1850 births 1919 deaths Shelichei derabonan (rabbis)