Yehuda Deri

Yehuda Deri was born in Meknès, Morocco, to Eliyahu and Esther (née Azougi).[1] His family was described as middle class and financially comfortable in Morocco, and immersed in Francophone culture.[2] At age ten, after the Six-Day War, he immigrated with his family to Israel, where they settled in Bat Yam.[1][3]

Although his parents were not Haredi, they enrolled Yehuda and his younger brother Aryeh in a Haredi boarding school in Hadera, fearing the boys might be led astray by juvenile delinquents in their neighborhood.[2] In 1973, Deri continued his studies at the prestigious Porat Yosef yeshiva in Jerusalem and later also studied at the Lithuanian-Haredi-associated Ateret Israel yeshiva.[1][4] He was the older brother of Aryeh Deri, who would go on to lead the Shas party.[1]

Deri's first rabbinic post was as rabbi of the Ramot neighborhood in Jerusalem, where he also headed a kollel.[4] He began serving as Beersheba's city rabbi in 1997, a post he would hold for 27 years until his death.[4]

As Beersheba's rabbi, Deri served on the Chief Rabbinate Council of Israel and chaired its committee for religious councils; he was also responsible for examinations for rabbinical judges.[5] He additionally chaired committees concerning STaM (Torah scrolls, tefillin, and mezuzot), circumcision, and missionary activity, as well as a committee approving candidates for rabbinical-judge examinations.[5]

In December 2016, Israel's two chief rabbis appointed Deri to a five-rabbi committee tasked with formulating guidelines for Chief Rabbinate recognition of rabbinical courts and rabbis abroad.[6] The committee was established following a High Court petition by ITIM and amid accusations that the Rabbinate was quietly blacklisting hundreds of non-Israeli rabbis.[6]

Deri was a prolific rabbinic author whose works included a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, books on the laws of kashrut and holidays, and a commentary on the Passover Haggadah.[4] His books were used by students preparing for rabbinic examinations, and he was regarded as an expert in lineage law, including questions of Jewish status, priestly status, and mamzerut.[4]

In his final reported ruling, Deri and two other Beersheba rabbinical-court judges permitted a child born to a married Jewish surrogate to marry within the Jewish community.[7] The court examined the fertility procedure, the religious observance of the surrogate and her husband, and her abstention from relations with him for three months, and it consulted medical professionals. The ruling identified the sperm provider as the child's biological father while restricting marriage to certain relatives of the genetic parents and surrogate.[7]

As a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council, Deri urged rabbis throughout Israel to protest the long-distance shipment of live sheep and cattle for fattening and slaughter in Israel.[8] Arguing that Jewish law requires minimizing animals' suffering, he said consumers who bought such meat were helping those responsible for an "evil crime."[8] His call was accompanied by a petition signed by 60 senior rabbis, and he announced plans to raise the matter at a Council meeting.[8]

Deri also pushed for the Chief Rabbinate Council to reinforce its recognition of Ethiopia's Beta Israel community as Jewish. After the Council approved the policy in November, he called it "a historic decision which will be remembered for generations in Israel, especially among the Ethiopian community."[9] The issue arose amid continued challenges to the community's Jewish status and accusations of discrimination.[9]

Deri sought several senior rabbinic appointments over the course of his career. In 2005, he ran against Israel Meir Lau for the position of chief rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, receiving 10 votes to Lau's 19 in a 30-member electoral body composed of ten religious-council representatives, ten synagogue representatives, and ten city representatives, with one abstention.[10][11] Deri publicly described receiving a third of the votes in a short campaign and under difficult conditions as a success.[10]

In 2013, aged 55, he submitted his candidacy for Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel.[12] The following year, he submitted his candidacy for Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem but withdrew before the vote; no reason for the withdrawal was reported.[5] At the time of his death in 2024, after announcing his candidacy earlier that year, he was considered a leading contender to succeed Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef as Rishon LeZion.[12][3]

Deri died on July 9, 2024, in Jerusalem at the age of 66.[3] He had been hospitalized at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center after an infection in his leg spread through his body and his condition deteriorated.[5][3] A pulmonary condition reportedly required ECMO support.[2] He died from complications of the infection.[3]

Several episodes in Deri's career attracted public dispute. In 2005, a riot disrupted a service at the Messianic congregation Nachalat Yeshua, with video footage showing hundreds of individuals ransacking the congregation, assaulting people, and taking over the site.[13] The congregation alleged that Deri and Alex Artovsky, the anti-missionary director of Yad L'Achim, had incited the incident; the U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Report for 2010 described their alleged role as an allegation and did not report that Deri had been found guilty.[13] Riot police were dispatched, but no one was arrested.[13] On May 24, 2010, the Beersheba Magistrate's Court ruled against the congregation in the resulting case; the congregation was subsequently considering whether to appeal.[13] Deri had separately stated that "a special network of volunteers had been set up that uses every legitimate means to stop missionary activity."[14]

Allegations were also reported that Deri controlled Beersheba's kosher beef business by conditioning certification on wholesalers' willingness to sell their products only in retail stores he designated; the claim originated with Ha'aretz and was discussed in the context of transparency and competition in local kosher-certification systems.[15] No response from Deri was reported, and the allegation was not confirmed or adjudicated.[15]

At Deri's funeral, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef called for Deri's son Avraham to succeed him as Beersheba's rabbi, saying he understood this to be what the deceased had wished.[16] The call drew criticism because the selection of a city rabbi is conducted through a local-authority process involving an electoral committee, and the funeral announcement had not gone through that procedure.[16]