Community Magazine March 2009

38 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE While still a young man in Baghdad, Hacham Yizhak was renowned as one of the greatest scholars and sages, whose opinion was considered decisive in both spiritual and rabbinical matters. In 1925 he fulfilled his dream, together with his wife Victoria, and moved to Jerusalem. His home in the holy city became known as a meeting place for hachamim. Over the years, he earned a widespread reputation for his vast Torah knowledge and leadership skills, resulting in his election as Rishon LeSion and Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel in 1955. Hacham Yizhak envisioned the Chief Rabbinate as the singular rabbinic authority that would serve all the Jewish people, in Israel and the Diaspora. He visited Jewish communities around the world and strived in good faith to find solutions for their problems and needs. Hacham Yizhak Nissim passed away in 1981/5741. Hacham Yizhak Nissim z.s.l. (1896/5656 - 1981/5741),  Born in 1920 in Basra, Iraq, Hacham Ovadia moved to Jerusalem with his family at the age of four. He studied in the famed Yeshivat Porat Yosef under Hacham Ezra Attiah, z.s.l., and received semicha (rabbinical ordination) at the age of 20. In 1942, Hacham Aharon Choueka, founder of Yeshivat Ahava V’ahva in Cairo, Eygpt invited Hacham Ovadia to serve as a rabbi and spiritual leader of the yeshiva, which served as the synagogue, school and community center. Hacham Ovadia accepted the invitation and spent three years in Egypt, after which he returned to Eress Yisrael and served as a rabbinical judge in Petah Tikva and, later, in Jerusalem. He eventually became the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv in 1968, a position he held until his election as Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel in 1973. Hacham Ovadia is widely recognized throughout the Sephardic world as the leading posek (halachic authority) for Sephardic Jewry. He is also the spiritual leader of the Shas political party in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament). Hacham Ovadia has written dozens of volumes of halachic works, which are studied and referenced by students and scholars across the globe, and appear in the bookcases of nearly every Sephardic home. Hacham Ovadia Yosef shelita Hacham Mordechai Eliyahu shelita Born in Jerusalem in 1928, Hacham Mordechaiwasprivilegedtolearnunderhis father, the great Hacham Salman Eliyahu, z.s.l., a renowned Kabbalist of Iraqi descent. Hacham Salman passed on when Rabbi Mordechai was only eleven years old, and HachamMordechai continued his studies under other hachamim, including Hacham Ezra Attiah; Hacham Sedaka Hussen, z.s.l.; Harav Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, z.s.l. (Hazon Ish); and Hacham Yisrael Abuhassera, z.s.l.(Baba Sali). Rabbi Mordechai served as the Chief Rabbi of Beersheva for nearly four years, and was then elected leader of the JerusalemBet Din, a position he continued to hold during his term as Chief Rabbi of Israel and through the present. He was elected Rishon LeSion in 1983 and served until 1993. After being hospitalized due to a serious illness, Hacham Mordechai has, Baruch Hashem, recently returned to his office for the first time in nine months.