Outrage after Yosef links troops dying, religosity, JP, August 27, 2007
August 27, 2007 6:31 am ShasOutrage after Yosef links troops dying, religosity, Jerusalem Post, August 27, 2007
Officials from across the political and military spectrums slammed Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Monday for a sermon in which Yosef said troops killed in the Second Lebanon War lost their lives because of their lack of religious observance.
Eli Ben-Shem, chairman of the Yad Labanim organization, which represents families of fallen soldiers, called Yosef’s remarks “shameful” and said that the comments had provoked angry phone calls to the organization, specifically from religious parents who “were hurt very badly.”
Ben-Shem emphasized that a large proportion of the 112 families who lost children in the war were religious and learned in yeshivot. “It is specifically those religious people that have been hurt by the comments. Secular people don’t pay much attention to him anyway,” said Ben-Shem.