Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu | |
|---|---|
 Eliyahu in 2019 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | (1956-11-29)29 November 1956 (age 68) |
| Children | Amihai Eliyahu (son) |
| Parents |
|
| Alma mater | Mercaz HaRav Kook |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Denomination | Orthodox Judaism /Religious Zionism |
| Position | Chief Rabbi ofSafed |
| Other | Chief Rabbinate Council |
Shmuel Eliyahu (Hebrew:שמואל אליהו; born 29 November 1956) is an IsraeliOrthodox rabbi. He is theChief Rabbi ofSafed and a member of theChief Rabbinate Council.
Some of Eliyahu's statements regarding Arabs andPalestinians have been construed as being discriminatory in nature. On 30 May 2022, theU.S. State Department in theBiden administration revoked Eliyahu's visa to enter the United States.
Shmuel Eliyahu was born toMordechai Eliyahu, the formerSephardiChief Rabbi of Israel, and his wife Tzviya. As a boy, he studied atYashlatz inJerusalem, and later atMercaz HaRav Kook, where he was a student ofZvi Yehuda Kook. He also served in anIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) combat unit.
Eliyahu received hissemikhah (ordination as rabbi) at age 23, and at age 29 was appointed to the position of Municipal Rabbi ofShlomi. Three years later,[when?] he was appointed the Chief Rabbi ofSafed.
In July 2013, Eliyahuran for the position of Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel.[1] Israeli Attorney GeneralYehuda Weinstein requested that Eliyahu abandon his candidacy, noting that he had made a number of offensive statements against Arabs.[2] Member ofKnessetIssawi Frej (Meretz) submitted an emergency petition to theHigh Court asking that Eliyahu be disqualified, since "election of a racist like Eliyahu to the position would be the start of the destruction of values in the State of Israel".[3] The High Court rejected the petition based on technicalities. In December 2013, Eliyahu petitioned the High Court against the Attorney General for using confidential information that was gathered as part of the failed criminal investigation that Weinstein sent to the election committee in his attempt to prevent Eliyahu from running.[4]
In October 2014, Eliyahu failed to win election asChief Rabbi of Jerusalem, losing out toShlomo Amar by a vote of 28 to 18 in the municipality's 48-member electorate.[5]
In June 2015, Eliyahu was involved in investigating the allegations of sexual abuse committed by self-styled Safed " kabbalist" Ezra Sheinberg against 14 women who came to him for marital therapy. Eliyahu brought the case to the attention of theIsrael Police, and in 2018 Sheinberg was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison.[6]
In November 2021, Haredi children's authorChaim Walder was the subject of aHaaretz exposé, accused of engaging in sexual abuse of minors and married women who came to him to receive therapy over a 25-year period. Eliyahu convened abeth din (rabbinical court) in Safed, encouraging Walder's victims to come forward and submit testimony against him, and found him "guilty beyond any doubt".[7] On 16 December, Eliyahu summoned Walder to the beth din.[8] Ten days later,Haaretz reported that the Israel Police had opened an investigation into Walder, but that he had not yet been questioned.[9] The following day, Walder was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound adjacent to his son's grave in the Segula Cemetery inPetah Tikva.[10] He left a suicide note wherein he professed his innocence, beginning it with
I went to inviteYehuda Silman [he] and Shmuel Eliyahu to a Torah trial in heaven.[7]
Upon hearing of this, Eliyahu said
We heard with pain about the suicide of Chaim Walder. It is a pity that he chose this path, we suggested to him that he repair what he damaged. That he apologize to the victims. That he change his ways. That no more women be harmed. [Walder] could have taught many through repentance ... We are strengthening the many victims at this difficult time, their lives take precedence over his life.[11]
In 2008, in the wake of a corruption investigation that targetedEhud Olmert, Eliyahu issued a pamphlet entitled "A Religious Prime Minister – It's Possible", in which he wrote
So what shall we do? Elect another prime minister without faith? Another one without credibility? Another one without values? ... When will we wake up and realize that we need a prime minister with akippa (religious head covering)?[12]
In 2022, Eliyahu was instrumental in convincingKnesset MemberIdit Silman to abandon theYamina party, an act that led to a coalition crisis in theBennett–Lapid government, which Eliyahu considered to be tooaccommodating to Arabs and hostile to the Chief Rabbinate. In April of that year, Eliyahu and his wife Tova met with Silman in their Jerusalem home to congratulate her on her decision.[13]
Eliyahu is close toItamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-rightOtzma Yehudit party.[14] Eliyahu's sonAmihai, a member of that party, was elected to theKnesset in 2022, assuming the role ofHeritage Minister.[15]
In May 2007, Eliyahu advocated "carpet bombing the general area from which theKassams were launched, regardless of the price inPalestinian life". He further stated, "If they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill 1,000. If they do not stop after 1,000, then we must kill 10,000. If they still don't stop, we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop."[16]
In March 2008, Eliyahu called for "state-sanctioned revenge" against Arabs. According toHaaretz, Eliyahu wrote an article for the newsletterEretz Yisrael Shelanu ("OurLand of Israel"), wherein he proposed "hanging the children of theterrorist who carried out theattack in the Mercaz Harav yeshiva from a tree".[17]
In 2009, Eliyahu was involved in publishing the conspiracy theory pamphletOn Either Side of the Border, in cooperation with theUnion of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU). The OU later asserted that its connection with the pamphlet was unauthorized by senior management.[18] The pamphlet, citing the personal account of a recent convert to Judaism who had previously been a member of the Lebanese organisationHezbollah, asserts that thePope and theCardinals of theRoman Catholic Church allegedly help organize tours ofAuschwitz for Hezbollah members, in order to teach them how to wipe out Jews. The pamphlet was distributed to IDF troops.[19]Danny Orbach [he], aHarvard-based Israeli historian, said that the pamphlet, supposedly written by aLebanese, actually contains gross factual errors that noArab could have made. In addition, there are also numerous other blatant geographical and cultural mistakes in the pamphlet, proving that the author is in reality aHaredi Jew from Israel who knows very little about the Arab world. Orbach's conclusion is that Eliyahu took part in a forgery, clearly in order to propagate hatred against Arabs and Muslims.[20] Eliyahu failed to answer the accusations, but his spokesman vouched for the authenticity of the pamphlet in a conversation withHaaretz.[19][21] Furthermore, Eliyahu had widely quoted from the pamphlet in a subsequent article.[22]
In December 2010, Eliyahuspearheaded a letter, signed by 50 rabbis, which urged Jewish Israelis to refrain from renting housing to Arabs. Circulation of the letter led to calls for Eliyahu's suspension, and for his prosecution on grounds of racial incitement.[23][24][25] In July 2012,Israel's Ministry of Justice closed the investigation into allegations of incitement, on the grounds of lack of evidence that the statements could be attributed to Eliyahu.[26]
In the wake of the2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake, Eliyahu wrote an article in theOlam Katan (newsletter) [he], in which he stated that the event, which he compared to the biblical story of thecrossing of the Red Sea, was a divine punishment to Syria, which
... abused its Jewish residents for hundreds of years in theblood libels of Damascus and others; whichinvaded Israel three times in order to kill and destroy[14]
and therefore deserved no pity. As for Turkey, which suffered significantly more casualties, he accused it of having defamed the State of Israel, and "everything that happens, happens in order to cleanse the world and make it better."World Jewish Congress headRon Lauder said that he was "aghast and appalled" at Eliyahu's words.Avraham Stav andYehuda Gilad declared that Eliyahu's statements were not consistent with the teachings of theTorah.[14]
Following an address in December 2017 in which U.S. PresidentDonald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced plans to relocate the U.S. embassy there from its current location inTel Aviv, Eliyahu organized a joint letter signed by 250 Israeli Orthodox rabbis praising Trump's historic proclamation, stating, "You will be remembered in the history of the Jewish people."[27]
OnJerusalem Day in 2022, Eliyahu ordered a large turnout for an annualflag march, saying that anything less would embolden the Palestinians in the wake of a recentspate of attacks against Israelis.[28] The following day, theU.S. State Department in theBiden administration revoked Eliyahu's visa to enter the United States. While no explanation was given for this, Israeli officials surmised that it was due to Eliyahu's statements regarding Arabs. A spokesman for Eliyahu blamed the action onReformist andanti-Zionist elements.[29]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
