Shas Leader Deri Invokes Moroccan Heritage in Rabbi Dispute

Aryeh Deri, chairman of the Shas party, responded Sunday to a decision by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel to petition against Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who harshly condemned Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara the previous evening. In his statement, Deri revealed that attorney Eliad Shraga, who heads the watchdog organization, comes from a Moroccan family that changed its surname from "Ben Gigi" to the more Ashkenazi-sounding "Shraga."

Deri wrote: "Eliad Ben Gigi, as a son of the Moroccan community, it would have been expected that you would be among the first to petition against the Attorney General who ordered the cancellation of the hillula memorial gathering for our master Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, of blessed memory, whom so many from the Mizrahi communities revere and whose legacy they seek to perpetuate. You, who claim to care for citizens' rights, not only failed to do so, but you are brazenly attacking his son and successor, the Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who is expressing his pain and that of a vast public. Ben Gigi, how far can one sink and trample one's own dignity and the honor of one's community?"

The controversy surrounding law enforcement decisions took a sharp and dramatic turn in the public and religious spheres Saturday evening. As first reported by Kikar Hashabat, Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef devoted a central portion of his weekly Torah lecture to an unusually harsh attack on the Attorney General, following her disputed directive to cancel the main hillula commemoration event honoring his late father, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the preeminent halakhic authority of his generation.

At the opening of his lecture, the Chief Rabbi criticized the Attorney General with severe statements regarding her conduct. "The religion-hating Attorney General who decided to cancel the hillula gatherings for our master Rabbi Ovadia Yosef," the rabbi said with visible anguish, directing extremely sharp words at her: "This wicked woman is interfering with our master? May G-d destroy her, she will receive her punishment."

The Chief Rabbi's remarks:

"Listen, at my father's funeral, there were nearly a million people there, all of the Jewish people. There were secular and religious Jews, knitted kippot, white kippot, Hasidim, Lithuanians."

Whoever was at the funeral and saw the broad public that was there—the entire public was there, a million people. Now, the anniversary of the rabbi's passing arrives, to hold a proper commemoration for him, as befits his honor, as the entire public recognized his greatness, suddenly they issue a legal opinion. This wicked woman, the legal advisor, I don't know what her name is, this crazy woman, issues an opinion that it's forbidden to hold a rally in honor of our master. Rabin, he was murdered around the same time, just before elections.

And regarding him they don't prohibit it.

"That belongs to the left, perfectly fine, they hold a rally, why not? But our master, the greatest of the generation, who was not a political figure—our master was a Torah scholar. Rabin was a political figure, but our master was a Torah scholar. She issued an opinion this week that it's forbidden to make declarations before elections, that no one should listen to her at all. May the Holy One, blessed be He, destroy her, give her her punishment. She's interfering with our master, the greatest of the generation she's interfering with. This won't pass here in silence, may G-d help that she receives her punishment."

Following these remarks, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel filed a petition demanding that a criminal investigation be opened against the rabbi.