Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Memorial Delayed Until After Elections

Israel's Attorney General is maintaining her position on a planned memorial conference honoring the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: despite public outcry following initial reports and an appeal from Yehuda Avidan, director-general of the Ministry of Religious Services, the government-funded event cannot take place before the upcoming elections.

The response came after Avidan contacted the Attorney General's office challenging the decision to block the conference at its originally planned date. In a letter sent to him, the legal adviser's office reaffirmed its stance regarding the academic conference.

However, the Attorney General's office emphasized that it has not banned commemorating Rabbi Yosef altogether. "There is no dispute about the public importance of commemorating the honorable Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of blessed memory, particularly close to the anniversary of his passing," the letter states. "Any claim that something was done to detract from his honor is baseless."

The response clarified that "no general instruction was given regarding holding or postponing memorial events for the Rabbi of blessed memory, including the memorial ceremony and state ceremonies, and specifically, there is no prohibition on holding them." In other words, memorial events honoring Rabbi Yosef (the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel and spiritual leader of the Shas party) may proceed, and the restriction does not apply broadly to various commemorative gatherings. The prohibition applies specifically to the government-sponsored academic conference that the Ministry of Religious Services sought to organize.

The Ministry had requested to hold the event between October 6 and 8. In its response, the Attorney General's office noted that the event includes visual content and installations, and is expected to receive extensive media coverage. Consequently, their position is that the conference can be held after the election date.

Another point raised in the response concerns the timing of the anniversary itself. The actual memorial day falls on October 14, while the Ministry requested to begin the event on October 6, eight days earlier. The Attorney General's office uses this gap to explain why the conference can be postponed to a date after the elections.

Avidan's arguments about discrimination, comparing the treatment of the Rabbi Yosef conference to conferences expected to be held near the election date marking the anniversary of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, received no response in the letter.

The Shas party issued a sharp response: "The defiant decision by the outgoing Attorney General, who insists on banning the conference on the legacy of our master Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of blessed memory, without any logical justification, is a severe blow to millions of tradition-observant Jews who wish to honor his memory and legacy, and a blatant trampling of the Rabbi's Heritage Law, which passed unanimously in the Knesset.

"Shas will not relent and will petition the Central Elections Committee against this arbitrary decision. We will not remain silent regarding the honor of the Rabbi!"