Rabbi Dov Lior | |
|---|---|
דוב ליאור | |
 Lior at Beit HaRav, Jerusalem in 2013 | |
| Chief Rabbi ofHebron,Kiryat Arba, andMoshavKfar Haroeh | |
| Rosh Yeshiva of Kiryat Arba Hesder Yeshiva | |
| Head of the Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Dov Leinwand (1933-10-30)30 October 1933 (age 92) Jarosław, Galicia, Poland |
| Nationality | Polish, Israeli |
| Spouse(s) | Bitya Goldberger (m. 1960–1988; her death), Esther Shahor |
| Children | 11 |
| Alma mater | Mercaz HaRav |
| Occupation | Rabbi, political figure |
Dov Lior (Hebrew:דוב ליאור; born 30 October 1933) is an IsraeliOrthodoxrabbi and political figure part of a far-right, nationalist movement for an ethnic and religious state. He served as theChief Rabbi ofKiryat Arba, a Jewish settlement near the West Bank town ofHebron, until late 2014.[1][2] He is the dean (orrosh yeshiva) of the Kiryat ArbaIDF-Hesder Yeshiva and leads the council of rabbis for the West Bank settlements. Lior founded the hard-right Tekumah party together withArutz 7's owner RabbiZalman Melamed and Rabbi Chaim Steiner.[3]
Lior is a longtime symbol of religious and nationalist extremism in Israel. Lior has also expressed support for mass murderers,[4][5] such as Israeli-American mass murdererBaruch Goldstein, whokilled 29 Muslims in a Hebron mosque. He claimed the 2015Islamic State attacks on Paris, which left 130 civilians dead, were deserved as payback for the Holocaust. When Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in 2014, he issued a religious ruling that allowed soldiers to kill civilians if that's what's needed for the safety of Israel and, if necessary, destroy Gaza entirely.[6][7][8][9]
Dov Leinwand (later Lior) was born to aBelz Hasidic family, son to Moshe Leinwand, inJarosław, western Galicia, Poland.[10] DuringWorld War II, he fled the Nazis with his family to theSoviet Union. They went deep into Soviet territory, includingSiberia andKazakhstan, and suffered from hunger and disease. Both of his parents died. In 1944, he was placed in an orphanage for Polish citizens. In 1945, he arrived in Poland. Using a false identity, he managed to pass into the American occupation zone inGermany, where Jewish institutions operated. There, he reunited with an older brother who had served in theRed Army during the war, while another brother who was with him during the war joined theHashomer Hatzair movement. Lior was placed in a Jewish children's home, where he began to studyHebrew.
In 1947, Lior was one of the passengers on theSS Exodus, which was intercepted by theRoyal Navy after defying the British blockade of Palestine. He and the other refugees were deported by the British back to Germany. He eventually managed to reachMandatory Palestine aboard the shipNegba, which arrived a few weeks before theestablishment of the State of Israel.[10] Once there, he changed his surname to theHebrewLior. In Israel, he first studied at theBnei AkivaKfar HaRoeh yeshiva, and then atZvi Yehuda Kook'sMercaz haRav yeshiva, where, owing to Lior's being an orphan, Kook treated him like a son. He served in theIsrael Defense Forces for one month in 1964.
Lior married Bitya Goldberger in 1960. She died of cancer in 1988. He later married Esther, widow of Ephraim Shahor. Lior has 11 children, 55 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. His two brothers arrived in Israel after him, and joined theHashomer Hatzair kibbutzHaMa'apil.
Lior is aReligious Zionist leader. He served as Rabbi of MoshavKfar Haroeh for 10 years. He subsequently became Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Arba.[1] He serves along withEliezer Waldman as head of the Hesder Yeshiva Nir Kiryat Arba. In 1978, he ran for the post of Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, but was defeated 37-25 byBezalel Zolty.[11] He served as Av Beit Din of the Beersheva Rabbinical Court. One of his rulings, that Jews should be prepared to sacrifice their lives to defend the settlement of Hebron, has been interpreted as support for acts of suicide if the government tries to force evacuation.[12] In the late 1980s, Israel's Attorney General barred Lior's almost certain election to theSupreme Rabbinical Council of Israel following a public outcry over his remark that captured Arab terrorists could be used to conductmedical experiments.[13][14] After theMercaz HaRav massacre, he said it was forbidden byhalakha (Jewish law) to employ or rent homes to Arabs.[15][16]
In 2008 Lior and other right-wing rabbis declared the government's policies onIsraeli settlements to be "worse than theBritish Mandate'sWhite Paper".[17] Evaluating theIsraeli invasion of Lebanon, Lior said it proved Israel was the one Middle Eastern state with sufficient military force to be considered a real power, a state all nations, bar none, must reckon with, and that "rooting out the iniquity" (of the terrorists) was "but a preliminary to the eventual rooting out of all evil in the world".[18] According to Professor Uriel Simon, Lior is also reported to have said at a rally that, "(i)n order to prevent the death of one (Israeli) soldier, I am willing to destroy all of Beirut".[19]
Lior denounced the possible transfer of jurisdiction of Christian sites in Israel to the Holy See in 2009, saying it was "unthinkable to hand over to the Vatican any piece of our Holy Land".[20] In 2011 he suggested that the Israeli government should offer incentives to theBedouin to return to what he considered as their places of origin, Saudi Arabia and Libya.[21]
In late 2014, Lior stepped down as chief rabbi. In February 2015, he moved from Kiryat Arba to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.[2]
Lior has stated that the killing ofnon-Jews during wartime is sanctioned byhalakha.[22] He asserted that Jewish women should not use sperm donated by a non-Jewish man, and that a baby born through such an insemination will have the "negative genetic traits that characterize non-Jews", and that, "If the father is not Jewish, what character traits could he have? Traits of cruelty, of barbarism."[23]
In 2007, commenting on the situation of African refugees in Israel, Lior said that a much more important issue was the situation of Jewish settlers - whom he termed "refugees" - expelled fromGaza in 2005.[24]
In 2008Foreign Policy magazine included him on a list of "The World’s Worst Religious Leaders" known for "preaching messages of hatred and violence".[25]
Leading rabbis have testified that Lior was the source of rulings labeling the late Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin arodef and amoser (traitor who endangers Jewish lives). Rabin's assassin,Yigal Amir, is known to have visited Lior.Baruch Goldstein also met with Lior. After Goldsteinmurdered 29 Palestinian worshipers at the Cave of the Patriarchs, Lior declared him "as holy as the martyrs of the Holocaust". Lior gave a eulogy at the funeral of Baruch Goldstein.[4][26]
In June 2011, Lior was arrested by Israeli police and questioned on suspicion of inciting violence for endorsing a religious book, theKing's Torah, that gives Jews permission to kill innocent non-Jews, including children.[27] Lior had been summoned for questioning by authorities, but refused to appear. Spontaneous demonstrations erupted in and around Jerusalem as outraged supporters assembled in various parts of the city and onRoute 1 to protest Lior's arrest. Israeli chief rabbisYona Metzger andShlomo Amar condemned the arrest as a "grave offense to an important rabbi's honor", and 25 members of the Knesset signed a petition denouncing it as "shameful" and as having been orchestrated by Deputy State ProsecutorShai Nitzan. Lior was released after an hour of questioning.[28][29]
Both opposition leaderTzipi Livni and Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu called for a full judicial investigation of Lior's remarks, and said that rabbis were not above the law.[30]
In September 2011, Lior stated that Arabs are "evil camel riders".[31]
In 2012, Lior referred to US PresidentBarack Obama with what was possibly a racial slur, "kushi of the West"—which is akin to the modern pejorative use of the word negro in certain contexts—and likened him to the genocidal enemy of the Jews,Haman. He also compared Western European leaders to Nazi collaborators.[32]
In July 2014, he said it was acceptable to killPalestinian civilians and destroy the entireGaza Strip in order to protect Jewish people in the South.[8][9]
In November 2015, during a eulogy at a funeral in Jerusalem for a father and son killed in West Bank, Lior said of theParis attacks: "The wicked ones in blood-soaked Europe deserve it for what they did to our people 70 years ago."[33][34]
In July 2024 Lior with several rabbis of the right-wing religious Zionist community came out against a hostage deal.[35]
An arrest warrant was issued against Rabbi Lior a few months ago for alleged incitement over statements published in his book, "The King's Torah", in which he legitimized the killing of non-Jews in war time.
Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior was detained by police Monday afternoon over his endorsement of a book that purportedly incites violence entitled,Torat Hamelech (King's Torah).
Earlier, Israel's chief rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar issued a joint statement Monday condemning the arrest of Kiryat Arba Rabbi Dov Lior.
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