A decision by legal officials to cancel this year’s state memorial events honoring Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l has sparked an uproar, with Shas threatening legal action and Religious Services Ministry Director-General Yehuda Avidan demanding an explanation for what he says is a glaring double standard involving memorial events for Yitzchak Rabin.
The annual “Maran Day,” which is established under Israeli law, was scheduled to take place on 4 Cheshvan, Oct. 8, approximately three weeks before Israel’s elections. Avidan charged that the decision to cancel the event was made without adequate justification and appears to contradict a legal opinion that had supported holding the commemoration as scheduled.
In a letter sent to the Justice Ministry, Avidan demanded to know the legal basis for canceling the Rav Ovadia memorial while allowing commemorations for slain Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin to proceed during the same election period.
Avidan noted that Rabin was a “party leader and an unmistakably political figure,” adding: “Even his party is currently running as part of the Democrats list.”
According to Avidan, the discrepancy becomes even more difficult to justify because the political movement associated with Rabin’s legacy is actively competing in the upcoming Knesset elections. He therefore asked the Justice Ministry to determine whether the same reasoning being used to cancel Maran Day should also apply to official Rabin commemorations.
Rabin was assassinated on 12 Cheshvan, which this year falls on Oct. 23. Because that date is a Friday, the main memorial gathering has been moved one day earlier, to 11 Cheshvan, Oct. 22.
Avidan argued that if events honoring Rabin — a clearly political figure — are permitted to proceed immediately before an election, there is no reasonable basis for preventing the official commemoration of Rav Ovadia, whose role was primarily spiritual and whose memorial day is explicitly enshrined in law.
He further pointed out that the annual Rabin commemorations extend well beyond a single central ceremony. Events are held in schools, municipal and public institutions, and at Har Herzl. Avidan noted that the commemorations have repeatedly generated political disputes and boycotts over the years, which he said further demonstrates their political character.
Avidan concluded his letter by demanding equal treatment. If the Justice Ministry insists on canceling Maran Day because of its proximity to the elections, he said, it must explain why the same standard should not be applied to the Rabin commemorations.
“Logic and equality require the postponement of the memorial events for Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin z”l accordingly,” Avidan wrote.
The dispute now places pressure on the Justice Ministry to reconsider the cancellation of Maran Day and potentially address whether its election-period reasoning should also affect the Rabin memorial ceremonies scheduled later in October.
Shas, meanwhile, issued a blistering response to the decision, accusing the attorney general of trampling both Rav Ovadia’s legacy and a law unanimously approved by the Knesset.
“The outrageous and infuriating demand by the dismissed attorney general to cancel the prayer and memorial gathering for Maran Rabbeinu Ovadia Yosef zt”l, on the claim that it constitutes ‘election propaganda,’ is a severe affront to the memory of Maran and to the enormous public in the State of Israel that follows the path of his legacy.
“This is also a blatant trampling of the law, which was unanimously approved by the Knesset plenum and requires that the gathering be held.
“We will not allow an attorney general who serves the left to harm the memory of Maran, and we will act through every legal means to overturn the decision.”
