Ya'akov Yosef (; 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 t ...

and politician who served as a member of the

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

for

Shas Shas () is a Haredi Judaism, Haredi religious List of political parties in Israel, political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardic Jews, Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until ...

between 1984 and 1988.

Early life

Ya'akov Yosef (Jacob Joseph) was born in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

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

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 ...

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

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; 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 studied in parallel. The stu ...

s in Bayit VeGan. He was later certified as a rabbi at the Rav Kook Institute.

Political 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 Southeas ...

, 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 he was removed from the Shas electoral list for the 1988 elections, at his father's behest. He later dissented from his father's political positions, especially as relates to peace negotiations with Palestinians. In 2008, he said that Shas had "lost its moral right to exist" because of its participation in governments that engaged in these negotiations. Yosef was detained by police under suspicion of incitement to violence and racism, after he wrote an approbation for a book that justifies the killing of non-Jews. His son, Yonatan Yosef, a prominent

, is the spokesman for Jewish Settlers in Sheikh Jarrah, and a prominent activists for the

Judaization Judaization (, ) or Judaification is the process of making something Jewish in character. In the context of Zionism, it is often applied to the Israeli expansion of Jewish settlement in areas with significant Palestinian populations, as in the ...

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...

. In 2013, Yonatan ran for Jerusalem City Council.

Rabbinic career

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 Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the covenantal relationship between the Jewish people and God ...

, was the chief rabbi of

Holon Holon (, ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area. In , it had a population of , making it the List of cities in Israel, tenth most populous city in Isra ...

. 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."

Controversy

On 3 July 2011, Yosef was arrested on suspicion of incitement to racism for his endorsement of the book '' The King's Torah'', 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 (IDF) launched Operation Pillar of Defense (, ''ʿAmúd ʿAnán'', literally: "Pillar of Cloud"), which was an eight-day campaign in the Governance of the Gaza Strip, Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, begi ...

, Yosef said in a sermon in

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

: "The IDF /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 pancreatic cancer in Israel Israeli Haredim 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 Burials at Har HaMenuchot