Israeli rabbi under fire for calling black people ‘monkeys’

JERUSALEM: Israel‘s Sephardi chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef is the subject of sharp criticism today, following his last weekly sermon when he compared black people to monkeys as he explained the blessing of blooming trees during the Hebrew month of Nisan. Video footage of his sermon was posted by media in which the rabbi talks about black people in the streets of America whose parents are white, then calls the black son of a white couple a monkey. He also uses the Hebrew word “kushi” to describe black people, which is widely considered a racial slur in Israel. The office of the rabbi responded saying that Yosef was quoting from the Talmud, the book of Jewish laws and traditions.