Jerusalem – A grandson of a former chief Sephardic rabbi of Israel reportedly will exchange wedding vows with a man at a ceremony led by a religious gay woman.
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Ovadia Cohen, whose late grandfather Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was the Shas party spiritual leader and Israel’s foremost Sephardic halachic authority, will tie the knot next week with Amichai Landsman, Ynet reported Thursday.
Cohen was very close to his grandfather, according to Ynet. His parents divorced when he was a child, leading the rabbi to take an active role in his upbringing, he told Ynet. Rabbi Yosef died in 2013.
Cohen had been married to a woman with whom he had two children, but they divorced and Cohen came out as gay. Three years ago he met Landsman, who grew up in a religious Zionist community in Haifa, and the two moved in together while maintaining a religious lifestyle.
Cohen has had “very partial” contact with his family following his coming out. Landsman says his religious family has come to “accept” him.
The ceremony celebrating the couple’s union will be led by Zahorit Sorek, a prominent activist in the gay religious community and a member of the Yesh Atid party, whose fight against what it considers religious coercion regularly puts it on a collision course with Shas.
The State of Israel does not have a civil marriage option and all state-recognized wedding ceremonies must be conducted by a cleric. However, it does recognize partnerships between same-sex spouses who register as living together.
I don’t think this is appropriate to publicize. There is an element that enjoys when Gedolim or their offspring stumble and no reason to feed them.
Disgusting
Sad
religious lifesatyle?!…like leading religious lifestyle but just being mechalel shabbos..
Disgusting. Sick.
Why is VIN advertising this and promoting lashon hara?
MAZEL TOV
“Be true to one’s self.”
Disgusting, filthy, perverted, sick! A shanda!
This is shocking news. I can’t believe it. The grandson of Harav Ovadia Yosef, marrying an Ashkenazi?
None of my business. (But #13 did make me laugh.)
disgusting!
What people do privately is their own business; it can’t be controlled. But to publicize and celebrate transgressions of Torah is chillul Hashem
When will you all wake up and address the issue that this can happen in any family, even yours? No one wakes up and decides to be gay one day. Be glad they’re still trying to be frum in other areas of torah. Most ppl drop all mitzvos when our community has no place for them. You let people who don’t necessarily keep Shabbos get Aliya’s and honors in Shuls. As I get older I find it hard to get upset at gay people anymore.
Why does this have to be publicized and embarrass the good name of Rabbi Yosef ZT”L?
שלום על ישראל
Which one is Cohen?
#13 lol.
#23 Exactly correct. Everyone criticizes until they have a gay child. They are born like that. The oinish is the same as being MChallel Shabbos. Do you call your non-Shomer Shabbos relatives “Disgusting, filthy, perverted, sick! A shanda!”?
A solution needs to be found for this and publicised throughout the world.
#29 So they should just frei out? It’s very easy to judge when it’s not happening to you or you have only given it two minutes thought.
why didn’t he just marry the other chief rabbis family? Rabbi Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie???
If the Torah forbids it that means they have a choice like alcohol or tattoos. #26 nobody is born with a tattoo you choose to make it, same with gays.