Yehuda Deri, brother of Shas leader Aryeh Deri and Beersheba chief rabbi, dies at 66

Yehuda Deri, the chief rabbi of Beersheba and the brother of Shas leader Aryeh Deri, has died at the age of 66, his brother says.

Deri’s passing at Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem is from complications related to an infection that led to his hospitalization last month, the Kikar Hashabat Haredi news site reports. His condition worsened gradually over the past 24 hours, the report says.

In a statement, Aryeh Deri eulogizes his late brother as “the leader of a tremendous revolution of Torah and Judaism, a vigilant keeper of kashrut who has redeemed many from sin.” He adds that Yehuda Deri “with his pleasant conduct and eloquence know how to make his listeners love Judaism.” Yehuda Deri’s death is “a tremendous loss to his thousands of students” and the Jewish people, adds Aryeh Deri, who recalls also his late brother’s tendency to “swim against the current.”

Yehuda Deri’s death is connected to a pulmonary condition that required he be put on an inhalator, the report also says, adding the rabbi was taken off the machine last week.

A prolific author and rabbinical judge, he was considered a leading candidate for succeeding Yitzhak Yosef as the chief Sephardi rabbi of Israel, according to sources with knowledge of the succession process. Some believe his illness was part of the reason for the stalling of the succession process, which the Chief Rabbinate says is connected to demands for women’s representation under the title of “rabbi” in the assembly that elects the chief rabbis.

Before becoming Beersheba’s top Orthodox rabbi some 30 years ago, Yehuda Deri was the rabbi of Ramot, a neighborhood of Jerusalem.