Rav Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron

Early years

Rav Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron zt"l, who served as Rishon LeTzion, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, was born in Yerushalayim in 1941. His father, Rav Bentzion, was a native of the Holy City, and his mother, Tovah, came from Aleppo, Syria, then home to a thriving Jewish community. He had an older brother, a younger brother and a sister.

From a young age Eliyahu showed a deep devotion to Torah study. He learned in several well-known yeshivos of the Religious Zionist movement, among them Yeshivas HaDarom, Yeshivas Chevron and Kol Yaakov, and he formed a connection with many of the leading Torah sages of Eretz Yisroel, both Sephardic and Ashkenazic.

Torah and leadership

Rav Eliyahu began his rabbinic career in 1970, shortly after his marriage to Esther, the daughter of Rav Shalom Lopes, Chief Rabbi of Akko. He was a neighborhood rav in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, where his community lived in Ramat Nasi and Ramat Yosef. He went on to become the Sephardic chief rabbi of the city. In 1975 he was chosen as Sephardic rabbi of Haifa, a position he held for eighteen years. He and Esther had ten children.

In Haifa he worked closely with the Chabad-Lubavitch shluchim and took part in many of their events. When the first “Unity Torah Scroll” was completed during the Lag BaOmer parade of 1982, he took a leading role in the celebration. Rav Leibel Schildkraut, longtime director of Chabad of Haifa, remembered him as a great scholar who was also approachable and unassuming, a leader who connected with people one by one.

Rav Schildkraut also carried messages between the Bakshi-Doron family and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson. They ranged from communal matters to personal ones. Rav Eliyahu went to great lengths to make sure the Rebbe received a copy of his Binyan Av, his collection of responsa in halachah, and his wife asked the Rebbe for a blessing regarding marriage proposals for their children and other personal matters. In later years he visited Chabad institutions and events around the world, and often spoke of his admiration for the devotion of the shluchim to building Jewish life and community.

In 1993 Rav Eliyahu became Rishon LeTzion, the first Sephardic Chief Rabbi not of Iraqi background since Rav Ben-Zion Meir Chai Uziel. He served until 2003, alongside the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, Rav Yisroel Meir Lau. In the shemitah year of 5760 (2000) the two Chief Rabbis, with the support of Rav Ovadia Yosef, ruled that farmers could rely on the heter mechirah, the sale of the land.

He was a hands-on leader who worked tirelessly to lift the spiritual lives of those he served, giving countless shiurim and lectures. His care reached into other areas as well. He served on the boards of a number of institutions, among them Rambam Hospital in Haifa and Keren Lavi, a charity that supports soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces.

As Chief Rabbi he also took part in meetings and conferences with leaders of other faiths. In 2000 he and Rav Lau met with Pope John Paul II. In 2002 he joined an interfaith conference in Alexandria, Egypt, where religious leaders of the Holy Land signed a joint declaration condemning violence in the region, and in 2005 he attended a congress of imams and rabbis for peace, held that year in Brussels.

Teachings and seforim

Rav Eliyahu was the author of Binyan Av, a compendium of responsa on Jewish law. During his long and fruitful retirement he founded and led the Binyan Av institute in Yerushalayim, a yeshivah that attracts young men from Sephardic communities around the world.

Later years and passing

Rav Eliyahu was predeceased by his wife, who passed away in 2005. He left ten children, together with many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He passed away on 19 Nissan 5780 (April 12, 2020), in the middle of Pesach, at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Yerushalayim. He had contracted the coronavirus (COVID-19), and earlier medical problems had made his condition worse. He was 79 years old.