20 Facts About Yitzhak Yosef

Yitzhak Yosef received the Israel Prize in Rabbinical literature for the year 2024.

Yitzhak Yosef is the sixth son of the former Israeli Chief Rabbi and Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef.

Yitzhak Yosef attended school at Talmud Torah Yavneh in the Independent Education System.

Yitzhak Yosef did not finish high school, and called secular studies "nonsense".

In 1971, when he was 18 and studying at Yeshivat HaNegev, Yitzhak Yosef collected halakhic rulings from the five volumes of then-in-print Yabia Omer, his father's responsa, and published them in a work called Yalkut Yitzhak Yosef.

Yitzhak Yosef won the Rabbi Toledano Prize for Torah Literature from the Tel Aviv Religious Council for his book Issur VeHeter, as well as the Rabbi Kook Prize for Torah Literature.

In 1975, Yitzhak Yosef was appointed rabbi of Nes Harim and Mata, moshavim in the vicinity of Jerusalem.

Yitzhak Yosef gave lectures and taught classes in the secular public schools and strengthened religious education there.

In 1992 Yitzhak Yosef expanded Hazon Ovadia to include a boys high school.

On July 24,2013, Yitzhak Yosef was elected as Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel and the Rishon LeZion, a position he would hold for a decade.

In March 2016 Yitzhak Yosef called for religious Jews to keep their children away from secular or traditional members of their family because they could be a negative influence.

Later that month, when Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot told military staff that rules of engagement must respect the law, and soldiers should not kill an attacker who has already been subdued, Yitzhak Yosef said soldiers must kill anyone who comes to attack them regardless of legal or military repercussions.

Yitzhak Yosef added that non-Jews are allowed in Israel to serve the Jewish population.

In May 2017, Yitzhak Yosef compared secular women to animals because they dressed immodestly.

On March 18,2018, Yitzhak Yosef allegedly likened people of black African descent to monkeys.

In referring to black people, Yitzhak Yosef used the ancient term kushi, the term present in the Talmud.

Yitzhak Yosef stood by his comments, saying they were distorted by politicians who had been inciting against Jews and Judaism and that he was only referring to a minority of immigrants.

In January 2021, Yitzhak Yosef was criticized for flouting the coronavirus health restrictions.

Critics accused Yitzhak Yosef of promoting dependence on government handouts and charitable donations instead of advancing self-reliance.

Yitzhak Yosef was briefly married to Edna, the daughter of the cantor and mohel Raphael Abuhav, but they divorced, and he married Ruth, the daughter of the kabbalist Rabbi Rahamim Attia.