Prominent Haredi rabbi known for homophobic remarks, far-right politics dies at 80
Netanyahu and other coalition leaders eulogize Meir Mazuz, who blamed COVID-19 and Meron disaster on homosexuality, denounced Bennett-Lapid government members as ‘worse than Nazis’
Rabbi Meir Mazuz, a prominent ultra-Orthodox Sephardic religious leader known for his inflammatory homophobic comments, died in Bnei Brak on Saturday. He was 80 years old.
Mazuz reportedly spent the past few days in a hospital, where his condition worsened until his death.
Born in Tunisia in 1945, Mazuz immigrated to Israel in 1971 after his father, one of the leaders of the Tunisian Jewish community, was assassinated. That same year, he and his brothers founded the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva.
Mazuz was admired in the ultra-Orthodox community for his innovative theological teachings and the various religious educational institutions he founded.
Outside of Haredi circles, Mazuz was better known for his relationships with far-right politicians in Israel.
He was a supporter of former Shas leader Eli Yishai and his failed Yachad party. In recent years, he supported the United Torah Judaism party, Shas under its current leader Aryeh Deri and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party.
Mazuz also endorsed Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, a disciple of his, during the last primary elections for the ruling Likud party.
Right-wing politicians eulogized Mazuz on social media after his death was announced.
“I had the privilege of having a close relationship with [Mazuz], to hear his advice, to be blessed by his presence and to receive his blessings,” Ben Gvir wrote on X.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also eulogized Mazuz on X, writing: “I had the privilege of meeting and speaking with Rabbi Mazuz, and I was always impressed with his intelligence, wisdom and humility.”
Mazuz received media attention throughout his career for his inflammatory remarks, particularly against homosexuals.
After initially stating that he believed COVID-19 would not reach Israel because the Halachic way of life would provide Jews with divine protection from the pandemic, Mazuz later blamed the virus’s entry into Israel on the gay pride parades held in the country.
In 2023, he called Amir Ohana, a gay Likud lawmaker who had just been appointed Knesset Speaker, “infected.”
He also insinuated that Ohana’s sexual orientation led to the 2021 Meron disaster, which saw 45 ultra-Orthodox men and boys killed in a stampede. At the time, Ohana served as public security minister and oversaw police officers who approved the Lag BaOmer festivities at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
In 2018, Mazuz said openly gay people cannot join a minyan, a quorum of 10 Jews needed for certain prayers. In 2015, he blamed a wave of deadly Palestinian terror attacks on Pride parades, several months after a Haredi extremist stabbed to death a 15-year-old girl at the Jerusalem Pride Parade.
In 2022, Mazuz called then-foreign minister Yair Lapid and finance minister Avigdor Liberman, as well as “all their friends” in the previous government, “traitors to their people” and “worse than Nazis.” He claimed that the previous government had been seeking to “choke Torah students” while “giving as much as possible to Arabs.”
Mazuz also made comments in 2023 in support of Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish doctor who killed 29 Palestinian worshipers in Hebron in 1994, saying that the mass murder prevented a disaster because “the Arabs put axes, guns and knives under their prayer rugs. There was a big danger. The danger was averted thanks to that Jew.”
The Times of Israel Community.