The Sunday morning fire at the Jerusalem synagogue where former Sephardi chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef prays was an arson attack, the Fire and Rescue Authority confirmed.
The starting point of the fire at the Or Habib synagogue in Jerusalem’s Sanhedria neighborhood was Yosef’s seat. Footage showed an individual setting the synagogue alight before running out of the building. Torah scrolls were damaged but remained whole.
Just a few minutes before reports came in about the fire, police were notified of crosses graffitied on the doors of a building located close to the synagogue.
Shas head Arye Deri said the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) was treating it like any nationally motivated terrorist attack. Deri also ordered a private security team to be assigned to Yosef.
'A disturbing event with serious antisemitic characteristics'
When Yosef, accompanied by Deri, arrived at the synagogue later on Sunday to survey the damages, Deri decried the attack as “a hate crime of the highest level,” and called for an end to incitement against the ultra-Orthodox (haredi) community.
“Enough with the hate. Enough with the incitement. Look what incitement and hatred can do,” Deri said. “Were it not for the miracle of the Fire and Rescue Authority coming, we could have arrived here today without a synagogue, without sifrei Torah (Torah scrolls) – everything burned. Who knows where this will lead?... Words can kill.”
Yosef served as chief rabbi from 2013 to 2024. He is considered one of the leading Sephardi authorities and is one of the members of the Council of Torah Sages, the rabbinical authority that guides Shas.
Yosef has come under fire in the past for incendiary comments he made, both in the position of chief rabbi and after, as a spiritual leader. The political tensions are such that the coalition is hanging by a thread – all to advance or prevent a draft law that would legalize draft-dodging, mostly by eligible haredi men.
Yosef, in December, encouraged haredi yeshiva students to take their draft notices and “tear them up, throw them in the toilet, and flush them away.” A massive toilet installation was displayed last week during an anti-draft protest near Bnei Brak.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he was “appalled by this heinous act.”
“We must not allow such displays that evoke dark times in our history,” he continued, adding a call to bring the perpetrators to justice.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the attack was “a disturbing event with serious antisemitic characteristics. Especially in the Jewish state, there must be zero tolerance for this.” Ben-Gvir’s ministry oversees the police.
President Isaac Herzog categorized the attack as a “hate crime.”
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel said, “This is a worrying escalation and an attack on a national symbol,” while opposition head Yair Lapid said, “I expect the police to quickly find the culprits and bring them to justice in the strictest of terms.”
Sarah Ben-Nun and Eric Lenefsky contributed to this report.