| Honorific-Prefix: | Rabbi |
| Yosef Mizrachi | |
| Birth Place: | Israel |
| Denomination: | Haredi |
| Residence: | Monsey, New York |
| Occupation: | Public speaker |
Yosef Mizrachi (Hebrew: יוסף מזרחי; born 1968) is a Haredi rabbi[1] and public speaker.[2] Considered by many to be a leading Orthodox Jewish outreach rabbi,[3] Mizrachi's outspokenness on certain issues has led to his widespread denunciation and characterization as misguided by leading Orthodox Jewish authorities.[4] [5]
Yosef Mizrachi was born in Israel. His father was Moroccan and his mother was Persian. As a young man, he performed military service in the Israel Defense Forces, later moving to New York in his 20s to pursue a career in the financial sector.[6] In 1997, he began learning and later teaching Torah at the Ohr Yeshiva in Monsey, New York, and later producing kiruv (Orthodox Judaism outreach) videos[7] that began appearing online in 2004.[8] He is one of the rabbis who revolutionized the use of social media for Orthodox Jewish outreach, aimed especially at non-religious audiences.[3] Over the years, Mizrachi's efforts have been endorsed by leading Israeli rabbis such as Shlomo Amar, Reuven Elbaz, and Yitzhak Yosef, who estimated the number of people Mizrachi has influenced to return to Judaism to be in the "tens of thousands".[9]
Mizrachi is a resident of Monsey, New York.[10]
In early 2014, before a lecture tour in London, concern was expressed about statements by Mizrachi in his previous lectures relating to the behaviour of secular and religious Jews during the Holocaust suggesting that Down syndrome and autism are "punishments for sins committed in a previous life" and among others. Mizrachi responded saying he was taken out of context and he would never disrespect people with disabilities. As a result, at least one of his planned lectures in London was initially cancelled.[11] After hearing a false report that the October 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting took place during a ceremony for the son of a gay couple, Mizrachi blamed the shooting on the allegedly sinful behavior of the congregation.[12]
Mizrachi has claimed that Jews helped bring about the Holocaust by assimilating.[13] In December 2015, in one of his lectures, Mizrachi claimed that it is possible that only one million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust as opposed to the well accepted figure of 6 million, since many of them were not Jewish according to Jewish law which requires a person's mother to be Jewish.[1] He was criticized by academics and Jewish leaders including Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who said that he "made up history to suit an agenda."[14] Later Mizrachi issued an apology.
In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mizrachi claimed that blowing hot air from a hair dryer into the throat was a cure for coronavirus. He recommended this treatment five times a day for two days for confirmed cases, and twice a day for suspected cases.[15]
In 2016, UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis spoke out against the plans of this "Jewish hate preacher" to visit Britain.[16] Mizrachi has been barred from entering the UK by the Home Office. In December, 16 prominent US rabbis issued an open letter about Mizrachi, saying that he "reduce[s] complex issues to simplistic and misleading sound bites," and that his assertions are "objectionable, and even dangerous."[17] The letter continued that institutions should be more "discerning" with the guests they invite.
In March 2019, a planned visit by Mizrachi to the UK was canceled following reports that the Home Office was considering a ban on account of his track record of spreading hatred and extremism.[18] [19] [20] Mizrachi went on to blame Mirvis - referring to him as "the number one most wicked person in the whole world", along with senior Sephardi rabbi Joseph Dweck, claiming that they are "the two friends, gay lovers, who do everything they can to promote homosexuality and destroy the Jewish nation from inside, destroy the Jewish community in England... he's going to bring a Holocaust on the Jews in England."[21] [22]
In July 2020, a video from Mizrachi calling 14 prominent rabbis infidels was removed from social media platforms and prompted calls to have his videos removed more broadly from Jewish sites such as Torah Anytime for fear that it will incite violence. Natan Slifkin, one of the rabbis threatened in the video said, "We need to protest this hateful, potentially violence-inciting rhetoric."[4]