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The most important and influential Sephardic Halakha ruler in the 20th century, the spiritual leader of the Shas political party and first president of its Torah scholars committee. Served as the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel and received the Israel Prize for Rabbinical Literature. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, immigrated to Eretz Israel aged four and ordained Rabbi at the age of twenty. Served as the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel in 1973-1983. His famous rulings from this period include the decision that the members of the Ethiopian Beta Israel community are Jews and the decision to dispense the wives of missing Israeli soldiers during the Yom Kippur War. Generally adopted a lenient approach in his rulings, striving to strengthen and empower the Sephardic-halakhic identity even if this involved abandoning certain ethnic customs.
