Yitzhak Yosef

In March 2016, 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.[9][10][4]

Later that month, when Israel Defense Forces (IDF) 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, Yosef said soldiers must kill anyone who comes to attack them regardless of legal or military repercussions.[11] Later he said: "If they no longer have a knife, they must be put in prison for life until the Messiah comes and says who are Amalekites, and then we can kill them."[12][13]

He also said that according to Jewish law, gentiles "should not live in the Land of Israel" unless they practice the seven Noahide laws. Should they refuse to do so, they should be sent to Saudi Arabia. He added that non-Jews are allowed in Israel to serve the Jewish population.[11][13][14][15] Leaders of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned Yosef's statements and called for their retraction. Jonathan Greenblatt and Carole Nuriel of ADL Israel called the remarks ignorant and intolerant.[16] He was eventually pressured into retracting his comments.[15]

There is constant controversy surrounding the authority of the Chief Rabbis over things like the conversion process, marriages, and semikhah (rabbinic ordination); due to the majority of Israel being secular or far less religious than the standards imposed by the Chief Rabbis. In 2016, it was revealed that they held a list of beth dins whose conversions it will recognize,[21] and maintained a secret blacklist of rabbis whose conversions they would not recognise.[22] This list caused controversy, since there were a number of Orthodox rabbis on the list, including Avi Weiss and Yehoshua Fass.[23] These lists were kept secret, offering no opportunity for outside review or appeal, and led to some confusion.[24] The situation became even more difficult when it was revealed that Haskel Lookstein, an Orthodox rabbi in the US, was included on the blacklist, and some of his students were not permitted to marry in Israel.[25][26][27] Lookstein was the officiating rabbi at Ivanka Trump's conversion and created some difficulties between Israel and the United States, since this was revealed shortly after the election of her father to the presidency.[28][29] It was reported that even David Lau was opposed to Yosef's policy in regards to recognition of US converts.[30] Soon after that, the rules were amended so that Trump's conversion was accepted,[31][32] although there were some questions about whether that was done merely to curry favor with the new US president.[28]

In December, he said that it was "not the way of the Torah" for women to join the IDF or even sign up for civilian national service: "All the great sages through the generations, including all Israel's chief rabbis, believe that it is forbidden for girls to go into the army... not just to the army – but to national service too."[33][34][35]

In May 2017, Yosef compared secular women to animals because they dressed immodestly.[36][34][37][40]

On 18 March 2018, Yosef allegedly likened people of black African descent to monkeys.[41][18][43] He was speaking on the topic of the Meshaneh HaBriyot blessing in the Talmud[44] concerning the sight of an unusual creature, either person or animal ("Blessed are you, Lord our God...who makes creatures different."). Examples of people given include "an (unusually) black, red, or white person, a giant, a dwarf, or one with spots", and of animals, examples include "an elephant, monkey, or vulture". In referring to black people, Yosef used the ancient term kushi, the term present in the Talmud. The term is considered derogatory in modern Hebrew,[45][46][47][48] but in the Talmud it is equivalent to saying "African" (see Kingdom of Kush). He said: "Seeing a black person, you say the blessing. What black person? One who had a white mother and father, and came out black. Not on every black person do you make a blessing. When you walk in the streets of America, every five minutes, you see a black person. Will you say on him the blessing? Rather, it only needs to be on a black person whose mother and father are white. If, you know, two people birth a monkey or something like that, then you say the Different Creatures blessing."[49][50] The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) tweeted that his comments were "utterly unacceptable".[39][18][52]

Following news that couples from the former Soviet Union were asked by rabbinical courts to take DNA tests in order to prove their Jewish heritage, Yosef, alongside David Lau, sought new legislation that would allow Israeli rabbinical courts to challenge the Jewishness of a person - even if he was not even registered for marriage, and did not apply for religious services.[53]

In January 2020, he was criticized for calling immigrants from the former Soviet Union "Communist, religion-hating" gentiles. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Yosef's remarks "outrageous" and said the immigrants from the former Soviet Union are a "huge blessing to the State of Israel and the Jewish people." Yosef's remarks also were slammed by others in the Knesset, including Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein, who immigrated from Ukraine in 1987, and by Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Liberman, who immigrated from Moldova.[54] 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.[20][55][56][57]

In January 2021, Yosef was criticized for flouting the coronavirus health restrictions;[58]

In June 2021, he said science and mathematics are "nonsense", and students should only study Torah instead, adding proudly that he himself never finished school or received a diploma. Critics accused Yosef of promoting dependence on government handouts and charitable donations instead of advancing self-reliance. The large majority of ultra-Orthodox boys do not study the core curriculum of mathematics, English, science and computer studies at elementary school level, and the overwhelming majority do not study this curriculum at high school level. Socioeconomic experts have warned that this failure to provide a basic education to boys in the Haredi sector combined with its high rate of population growth means the economy will be imperiled with an inadequate workforce for the 21st century.[59][4]

In July 2021, the rabbi stated that it's "better to live abroad than among secular Israelis".[60]