NOVANEWS
800,000 attend last procession for revered Nazi leader of Sephardi Jewry; 300 require medical treatment — but no serious injuries… and one birth; worried police chief had feared disaster as crowds swelled; public figures send condolences, recall a giant of Jewish thought
Times of Israel
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the powerful, much-loved and sometimes controversial spiritual leader of Israel’s Sephardi community, passed away in Jerusalem early Monday afternoon after being hospitalized repeatedly over the last several weeks. He was 93. Ovadia was laid to rest Monday night in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sanhedria, with some 800,000 mourners converging from all over the country to attend what became the largest funeral in Israeli history. Despite the huge crowds, far beyond the numbers police had anticipated, there were no reports of serious injuries. Read The Times of Israel’s coverage of an unprecedentedly vast public outpouring of respect and grief.
