Israeli Chief Rabbi Calls African-Americans ‘Monkeys’

One of Israel’s most senior religious leaders, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef has been slammed for comparing black people with monkeys

Yosef made the comments during one of his weekly religious lessons. His office claimed there was a religious context to the comparison made in the rabbi’s sermon.

RT reports: Yosef allegedly used derogatory phrases when talking about African-Americans during a lesson to followers last Saturday, reported Ynet News. During the speech, the rabbi appeared to specifically suggest that prayers should only be offered to black people whose parents happen to be white.

“You go around in the streets of America, every five minutes you will see a negro. Do you bless him as an ‘exceptional creature’?” Yosef is quoted as saying. “We don’t say a blessing for every negro… He needs to be a negro whose father and mother are white… if you know, they had a monkey for a son, they had a son like that.”

Racially charged comment made by Israeli Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, comparing people of color to “monkeys”, is utterly unacceptable. https://t.co/uQRPk7meyl

— ADL (@ADL_National) March 20, 2018

The Anti-Defamation League, a New York-based civil rights organization, slammed the “racially charged” comments from the rabbi as “utterly unacceptable.