Yosef Dayan (; born 1945) is a Mexican-

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i Orthodox

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 ...

, author and right-wing Israeli monarchist and nationalist, who claims to be the most senior heir to the

Davidic line The Davidic line refers to the descendants of David, who established the House of David ( ) in the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. In Judaism, the lineage is based on texts from the Hebrew Bible ...

. He is the founder and director of Malchut Israel, a religious right-wing political party which advocates for a monarchy in Israel. In 2004, Dayan became a founding member of the newly reconstituted

Sanhedrin The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Middle Aramaic , a loanword from , 'assembly,' 'sitting together,' hence ' assembly' or 'council') was a Jewish legislative and judicial assembly of either 23 or 70 elders, existing at both a local and central level i ...

Early life and background

Yosef Dayan was born in 1945 in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Sephardic Jewish 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 ...

parents from

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, Syria, where the

Dayan family Dayan or Daayan may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Daayan (TV series), ''Daayan'' (TV series), an Indian paranormal romance series * ''Daayan'', a 1996 Hindi short story collection by Bhisham Sahni People * Dayan (surname), including a li ...

had lived for some seven hundred years. Dayan's family trace their ancestry in a direct

paternal line Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...

to the

Exilarch The exilarch was the leader of the Jewish community in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) during the era of the Parthians, Sasanians and Abbasid Caliphate up until the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, with intermittent gaps due to ongoing polit ...

s of

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

, who in part were direct paternal descendants of the Davidic line. He and his family paternally descend from Josiah al-Hasan ben Zakkai (d. 940), the younger brother of the Exilarch David ben Zakkai (d. 940), whose genealogy is recounted in the rabbinic work ''

Seder Olam Zutta Seder Olam Zutta (Hebrew: ) is an anonymous chronicle from 803 CE, called "Zuta" (= "smaller," or "younger") to distinguish it from the older ''Seder Olam Rabbah.'' This work is based upon, and to a certain extent completes and continues, the old ...

'' which traces the line of the Exliarchs back to

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

. One of Hasan's descendants, Solomon ben Azariah the Nasi, settled in

where the family became dayanim (judges) of the city and thus assumed the surname Dayan.

Dynastic claims

In 1933, Yitzak Dayan, a cousin of Yosef Dayan's father was considered by some Orthodox rabbis to be the heir and titular "

King of Israel The article deals with the biblical and historical kings of the Land of Israel—Abimelech of Sichem, the three kings of the United Kingdom of Israel and those of its successor states, Israel and Judah, followed in the Second Temple period, ...

Politics

Dayan later founded "Malchut Israel," a right-wing religious-political group in Israel advocating a return to the monarchy. In 2004, he became a member of the newly reconstituted Sanhedrin, a duplicate of the religious tribunal which convened during the time of the

Second Temple The Second Temple () was the Temple in Jerusalem that replaced Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. It was constructed around 516 BCE and later enhanced by Herod ...

. The Sanhedrin had traditionally had 71 members. He is alleged to have participated in so-called "death curse" ceremonies or Pulsa diNura aimed at

Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; , ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the prime minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–1977, and from 1992 until Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, his ass ...

and

Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon ( ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 192811 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestin ...

, presumably requesting divine retribution after those former prime ministers advocated Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas considered by Zionists to be inalienable parts of the

Promised Land In the Abrahamic religions, the "Promised Land" ( ) refers to a swath of territory in the Levant that was bestowed upon Abraham and his descendants by God in Abrahamic religions, God. In the context of the Bible, these descendants are originally ...

. His son, Hananel Dayan-Meged, refused to shake the hand of

Dan Halutz Dan Halutz (, ; born August 7, 1948) is an Israeli Air Force lieutenant general and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and commander of the Israeli Air Force. Halutz served as chief of staff in 2005–2007. Biography Halutz was ...

, the (former) Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Force, while receiving the "President of Israel Excellence Citation" during the Israeli Independence Day celebrations.

Books

Yosef Dayan is the author of several books in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and has worked to translate modern Spanish literature into Hebrew.

References

External links

Malchut Yisra'el Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dayan, Yosef 1945 births Living people Israeli Sephardi Jews Israeli Orthodox Jews Israeli Kahanists Israeli monarchists Israeli people of Mexican-Jewish descent Israeli translators Mexican emigrants to Israel Mexican Sephardi Jews Translators from Spanish Translators to Hebrew