Shmuel Eliyahu

Samuel Eliyahu (Cropped)

Shmuel Eliyahu or Shemuel Elijah[u], also known as "Samuel Eliyahu" or "Samuel Elijah[u]" (Hebrew: שמואל אליהו; born 29 November 1956) is an Orthodox Judaic Israeli activist and rabbi.

He is the Chief Rabbi of Safed and a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council.

Rabbi Shemuel Eliyahu and his policies regarding Arabs and Palestinian peoples are dubbed discriminatory in nature.

Views

Government of Israel

In 2008, in the wake of a corruption investigation that targeted Ehud Olmert, Eliyahu issued a pamphlet entitled "A Religious Prime Minister – It's Possible", in which he wrote

 

So what shall we do? Elect another prime minister without faith? Another one without credibility? Another one without values? ... When will we wake up and realize that we need a prime minister with a kippa (religious head covering)?

In 2022, Eliyahu was instrumental in convincing Knesset Member Idit Silman to abandon the Yamina party, an act that led to a coalition crisis in the Bennett–Lapid government, which Eliyahu considered to be too accommodating to Arabs and hostile to the Chief Rabbinate. In April of that year, Eliyahu and his wife Tova met with Silman in their Jerusalem home to congratulate her on her decision.

Just as father Mordechai Eliyahu, who ran as the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, came out as one of the staunchest supporters of Rabbi Meir Kahane, one of whose books did he write a glowing approbation to and eulogize in Messianic terms, Shmuel Eliyahu carried on his tradition by assuming closeness to Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right, conservative Otzma Yehudit.

Samuel Eliyahu's son Amihai, a member of that party, was elected to the Knesset in 2022, assuming the role of Heritage Minister.