The spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Shas party in Israel, Rabbi Shalom Cohen, died Monday, August 22 at the age of 91, his family announced.
The state of health of Rabbi Cohen, hospitalized at the Hadassa hospital in Jerusalem, had deteriorated since Sunday evening, according to his family.
“
On behalf of the Israeli government and all the Israeli people, I extend my condolences to his family, his students and all those who honor his memory
,” commented Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
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Born in 1930 in Jerusalem, he succeeded the influential and emblematic figure of the ultra-Orthodox Shass party, Ovadia Yossef, who died in October 2013. Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed his “
sadness
” following the disappearance of Shalom Cohen.
“ He
was a spiritual leader who humbly and modestly led a large and significant population in Israel and the Jewish world
,” he said.
Shalom Cohen chaired the Council of Torah Sages, the supreme body of Shass, the largest ultra-Orthodox Jewish formation in Israel and the third political formation in the Knesset (Parliament).
He headed the
Porat Yossef
yeshiva in Jerusalem, the main Sephardic Talmudic school where he had studied in his youth.
Tens of thousands of people are expected at his funeral scheduled for the day in Jerusalem.
