Dov Lior

Rabbi Dov Lior (Hebrew: דב ליאור‎, born 30 October 1933) is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi, who served as the Chief Rabbi of Hebron and Kiryat Arba in the southern West Bank until late 2014.[1][2] He is also the rosh yeshiva of the Kiryat Arba Hesder Yeshiva, and also heads the "Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria".[3]

Rabbi Dov Lior at Beit HaRav, Jerusalem

Biography

He was born to a Belz Hasidic family, son to Moshe Leinwand, in Jarosław, Galizia.[4] During World War II, he fled the Nazis with his family to the Soviet Union. They went deep into Soviet territory, including Siberia and Kazakhstan, and suffered from hunger and disease. Both of his parents died. In 1944, he was placed in an orphanage for Polish citizens. In 1945, he arrived in Poland. Using a false identity, he managed to pass into the American occupation zone in Germany, where Jewish institutions operated. There, he reunited with an older brother who had served in the Red Army during the war, while another brother who was with him during the war joined the Hashomer Hatzair movement. Lior was placed in a Jewish children's home, where he began to study Hebrew.

In 1947, Lior was one of the passengers on the SS Exodus, which was intercepted by the Royal Navy after defying the British blockade of Palestine. He and the other refugees were deported by the British back to Germany. He eventually managed to reach Mandatory Palestine aboard the ship Negba, which arrived a few weeks before the establishment of the State of Israel.[4] Once there, he changed his surname to the Hebrew Lior. In Israel, he first studied at the Bnei Akiva Kfar HaRoeh high school yeshiva, and then at Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook's Mercaz haRav yeshiva, where, owing to Lior's being an orphan, the Rabbi treated him like a son. He served in the Israel Defense Forces for one month in 1964.

Lior married Bitya in 1960. She died of cancer in 1988. He later married Esther, widow of Rabbi Ephraim Shahor. Lior has 11 children, 55 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. His two brothers arrived in Israel after him, and joined the Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz HaMa'apil.

Rabbi Dov Lior (center) in a meeting with students of Machon Meir at his house in Kiryat Arba in June 2008

Rabbinic career

Lior is a Religious Zionist leader and student of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, son of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. He served as Rabbi of Moshav Kfar Haroeh for 10 years. He subsequently became Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Arba.[1] He serves along with Rav Eliezer Waldman as Head of the Hesder Yeshiva Nir Kiryat Arba. In 1978, he ran for the post of Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, but was defeated 37-25 by Rav B. Zolti.[5] He served as Av Beit Din of the Beersheva Rabbinical Court. One of his rulings, that Jews should be prepared to sacrifice their lives to defend the settlement of Hebron, has been interpreted as support for acts of suicide if the government tries to force evacuation.[6] In the late 1980s, Israel's Attorney General barred Lior’s almost certain election to the Supreme Rabbinical Council of Israel following a public outcry over his remark that captured Arab terrorists could be used as guinea pigs in medical experiments.[7][8] After the Mercaz HaRav massacre, he said it was forbidden by Jewish law to employ or rent homes to Arabs.[9][10]

In 2008, Lior and other right-wing rabbis declared the government's policies on Israeli settlements to be "worse than the British Mandate's White Paper".[11] Evaluating the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Lior said it proved Israel was the one Middle Eastern state with sufficient military force to be considered a real power, a state all nations, willy nilly, must reckon with, and that "rooting out the iniquity (of the terrorists)" was "but a preliminary to the eventual rooting out of all evil in the world".[12] According to Professor Uriel Simon, he is also reported to have said at a rally that, "(i)n order to prevent the death of one (Israeli) soldier, I am willing to destroy all of Beirut".[13]

In 2009, he denounced the possible transfer of jurisdiction of Christian sites in Israel to the Holy See, saying it was "unthinkable to hand over to the Vatican any piece of our Holy Land".[14] In 2011, he suggested that the Israeli government should offer incentives to the Bedouin to return to what he considered as their places of origin, Saudi Arabia and Libya.[15]

In late 2014, Lior stepped down as chief rabbi, and in February 2015, he moved from Kiryat Arba to his new home on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.[16][2]

Controversies

Lior has legitimized by a halakha ruling the killing of non-Jews during wartime.[17] He asserted that Jewish women should not use sperm donated by a non-Jewish man, and that a baby born through such an insemination will have the "negative genetic traits that characterize non-Jews", and that, "If the father is not Jewish, what character traits could he have? Traits of cruelty, of barbarism."[18]

In 2007, commenting on the situation of African refugees in Israel, Lior said that a much more important issue was the situation of Jewish settlers - "refugees" - expelled from Gaza in 2005.[19]

Leading rabbis have testified that Lior was the source of rulings labeling the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin a "rodef" and a "moser" (a traitor who endangers Jewish lives). Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir, is known to have visited Lior. Baruch Goldstein also met with Lior. After Goldstein murdered 29 Palestinian worshipers at the Cave of the Patriarchs, Lior described Goldstein as "holier than all the martyrs of the Holocaust".[20][21]

In June 2011, Lior was arrested by Israeli police and questioned on suspicion of inciting violence for endorsing a religious book, the King's Torah, that gives Jews permission to kill innocent non-Jews, including children.[22] Lior had been summoned for questioning by authorities, but refused to appear. Spontaneous demonstrations erupted in and around Jerusalem as outraged supporters assembled in various parts of the city and on Route 1 to protest Lior's arrest. Israeli chief rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar condemned the arrest as a "grave offense to an important rabbi's honor", and 25 members of the Knesset signed a petition denouncing it as "shameful" and as having been orchestrated by Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan. Lior was released after an hour of questioning.[23][24]

Both opposition leader Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a full judicial investigation of Lior's remarks, and said that rabbis were not above the law.[25]

In September 2011, Lior stated that Arabs are "evil camel riders".[26]

In 2012, Lior called US President Barack Obama a racial slur, "kushi of the West", and likened him to the genocidal enemy of the Jews, Haman. He also compared Western European leaders to Nazi collaborators.[27]

In July 2014, he said it was acceptable to kill Palestinian civilians and destroy the entire Gaza Strip in order to protect Jewish people in the South.[28][29]

In November 2015, during a eulogy at a funeral in Jerusalem for a father and son killed in West Bank, Lior said of the Paris attacks: "The wicked ones in blood-soaked Europe deserve it for what they did to our people 70 years ago."[30][31]

gollark: GAAAAAAH
gollark: I can only remember that much.
gollark: 3.14159265358979
gollark: WHY DO YOU HAVE AN EVAL COMMAND
gollark: Well, I could, but it wouldn't be the election.

References
  1. Chaim Levinson,'Kiryat Arba chief rabbi arrested following his support of book which justifies killing of non-Jews,' Haaretz,27 June 2011.
  2. Sharon, Jeremy. "Rabbi Dov Lior steps down as chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba, to move to east Jerusalem". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  3. 'Hebron Chief Rabbi Pulls Support from Bennett's Party,' The Jewish Press, 4 January 2013.
  4. David Wilder (February 11, 2011). "An Unforgivable Sacrilege". The Jewish Press. p. 6.
  5. HaPardes Journal, Tevet 5738 p. 26
  6. Ehud Sprinzak 'Israel's Radical Right and the Countdown to the Rabin Assassination,' in Yoram Peri (ed.), [The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin,] Stanford University Press, 2000 pp.96-127 p.106.
  7. Gershom Gorenberg, The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount, Free Press, New York 2000 p. 164
  8. Israël Shahak, Norton Mezvinsky, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel, Pluto Press, 2004 p.103
  9. Nadav Shragai, 'Top Yesha rabbi says Jewish law forbids renting houses to Arabs'’ Haaretz 20/03/2008
  10. Rabbi Lior Speaks Out Against Hiring of Arabs Yedioth Ahronoth
  11. Rightist rabbis brand gov't policy on settlements worse than White Paper Archived 2011-08-13 at the Wayback Machine Jerusalem Post
  12. Aviezer Ravitzky, Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism, University of Chicago Press,(1993) 1996 p.84.
  13. Myron J. Aronoff, Israeli Visions and Divisions, Transaction Publishers, 1998 p.115.
  14. Chief Rabbinate: Holy Land assets cannot be turned over to Vatican
  15. 'Rabbi Lior: Encourage Bedouins to leave Israel ,' Ynet,26 April 2011.
  16. 'Rabbi Dov Lior steps down as chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba, to move to east Jerusalem ' jpost,26 October 2014.
  17. Yair Altman,'Rabbi Dov Lior arrested,' Ynet, 27 June 2011:'An arrest warrant was issued against Rabbi Lior a few months ago for alleged incitement over statements published in his book, "The King's Torah", in which he legitimized the killing of non-Jews in war time.'
  18. "'Gentile sperm leads to barbaric offspring' - Israel Jewish Scene, Ynetnews". Ynetnews.com. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  19. Sarah Willen, "Darfur through a Shoah lens", in A Reader in Medical Anthropology, edited by Byron J. Good, Michael M. J. Fischer, Sarah S. Willen, Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Wiley, pp. 506-21
  20. Rachlevsky, Sefi (2011-07-01). "A racist, messianic rabbi is the ruler of Israel - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  21. Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism, Macmillan 2012 p.23.
  22. "the extremist rabbi who reigns unobstructed". Haaretz. November 5, 2013.
  23. Manel, Jonah (27 June 2011). "Rabbi Lior joins marchers in J'lem protesting his arrest". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 28 June 2011. Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior was detained by police Monday afternoon over his endorsement of a book that purportedly incites violence entitled, Torat Hamelech (King’s Torah).
  24. Yair Altman; Kobi Nahshoni; Omri Efraim; Oran Azulay (28 June 2011). "Rightists threaten further violence over rabbi's arrest". Ynetnews. Retrieved 28 June 2011. Earlier, Israel's chief rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar issued a joint statement Monday condemning the arrest of Kiryat Arba Rabbi Dov Lior.
  25. Ravid, Barak (2011-06-28). "Netanyahu responds to Rabbi Dov Lior's arrest: Israeli law applies to all citizens Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  26. "Rabbi Lior: Arabs are 'evil camel riders' - Israel Jewish Scene, Ynetnews". Ynetnews.com. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  27. ''Rabbi Lior compares Obama to villain Haman,' Jerusalem Post,02/03/2012.
  28. Jeremy Sharon,'Rabbi Lior: Jewish law permits destruction of Gaza to bring safety to Israel,' Jerusalem Post 23 July 2014.
  29. Kaufman, Ami (July 22, 2014). "Israeli rabbi: It's okay to kill innocent civilians and destroy Gaza". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  30. "Far-right settler rabbi: Paris attacks are payback for the Holocaust". The Jerusalem Post. 15 November 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  31. "Controversial rabbi says Paris attacks punishment for Holocaust". The Times of Israel. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
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