A controversial Orthodox outreach rabbi from America whose views have been denounced by mainstream rabbis is planning to come to speak in London and Manchester next month.
Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi has argued that autism and Down’s Syndrome are punishment for sins in a past life and that Ashkenazi suffering in the Holocaust was partly a consequence of assimiliation.
Three years ago, when he planned to speak at what he called “a private event” in the UK, hundreds signed a petition in protest.
A spokesman for the Office of the Chief Rabbi said at the time it did not expect its communities to host someone with views that cause “widespread offence and upset”.
Rabbi Joseph Dweck, leader of the S & P Sephardi Community, said then it was “regrettable that anyone should see his offerings as being in line with authentic Judaism and they are certainly not the traditional approach of the Sephardim”.
Rabbi Mizrachi has also suggested mixed-sex parties increase the incidence of cancer.
According to his website, Divine Information, which broadcasts his talks, he will be lecturing in Manchester on March 14 and over the following three days in London — though it gives no details of the prospective venues.
He spoke at synagogues and at least one school during a visit to the UK in 2014. One supporter, Alex Nizovskiy, a Russian-born businessman in Manchester, who describes himself as a ba’al teshuvah (newly observant), said he was attracted by Rabbi Mizrachi’s “amazing shiurim” (lessons) on the Psalms.
The vast majority of the rabbi’s output was about Torah, the Bible and mussar (ethics) rather than controversial issues.
“Even if you consider some past things controversial, 99 per cent of current things are very neutral,” he said.
“I like how he ties current events to Torah,” he went on, adding that “no other rav” was doing this.
Mr Nizovskiy said he had helped put Rabbi Mizrachi in touch with “a few people” but the rabbi was coming on his own and not under the umbrella of any group.
There is no love lost between the Israeli-born Rabbi Mizrachi, who has been involved in outreach for 25 years, and Rabbi Dweck.
Rabbi Mizrachi has previously called the SPSC head a “monster” and probably the “biggest, wicked person on earth”.
