24 Facts About Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron was an Israeli rabbi who served as Rishon LeZion from 1993 to 2003.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron was known for his promotion of interfaith dialogue and nonviolence.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron was born in Jerusalem to Ben-Zion Bakshi-Doron, a native of the city, and Tova, an immigrant from Aleppo, Syria.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron continued his education at Yeshivat HaDarom, Hebron Yeshiva, and Kol Ya'akov.

In 1993, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron became the first Rishon LeZion of non-Iraqi extraction since Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel in 1954.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron served his term concurrently with his Ashkenazi counterpart, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron dismissed the resulting uproar as a publicity stunt, saying it was "unthinkable" that anyone would consider his speech an incitement to murder.

In January 1999, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron stated publicly that the Reform movement had harmed Jews more than had the Holocaust.

In 1998, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron met with Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen in Istanbul, Turkey.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron stipulated that any agreement would have to allow for the Temple Mount to remain in Israeli control.

When Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron publicly told the farmers that they could rely on the sales, the Haredi newspaper Yated Ne'eman began to leak word that Eliashiv would delegitimize him and put him and his family in herem if he refused to back down.

Distraught, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron went to meet with President of Israel Moshe Katsav, reportedly bursting into tears.

On January 21,2002, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron took part in an interfaith conference in Alexandria, Egypt.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron continued to participate in interfaith activities and sat on the Board of World Religious Leaders for The Elijah Interfaith Institute.

Later in 2002, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron accused Yasser Arafat of attempting to commit "a Holocaust against the State of Israel".

In 2004, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron spoke out in favor of introducing civil marriage in Israel, saying that the law subjecting members of the different Millets to respective religious authorities had become irrelevant, and was now a source of division and hatred.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron received attention in January 2005 for attending the first World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace in Brussels, Belgium.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron's 1993 ruling that "Women can be of the Gedolim of the generation and serve as halakhic decisors" attracted attention in light of the controversy over the appointments of women to clerical positions in Orthodox congregations.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron established the Binyan Av institutions, which include a central campus in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron was indicted in 2012 over his involvement in "the rabbis' case," in which he was accused of issuing false rabbinic ordinations and yeshiva education certificates to 1,500 police and security services employees during his tenure as Chief Rabbi.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron was convicted of fraud and breach of trust on May 15,2017, by the Jerusalem District Court for his part in the scam.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron was sentenced to one year probation, and a fine of NIS 250,000.

At the age of 25 Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron married Esther, daughter of the previous Chief Rabbi of Akko, Shalom Lopes, with whom he had ten children.

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron died on April 12,2020, in Shaare Zedek Medical Center, after contracting the COVID-19 virus during the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel.