JERUSALEM (Reuters) — A former Israeli chief rabbi has died after contracting the coronavirus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, in what is the country’s highest-profile death from the pandemic.
Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, who served from 1993 to 2003 as the state’s top chaplain for Sephardim, or Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent, succumbed late on Sunday to complications from the respiratory virus in a Jerusalem hospital, aged 79, Israeli media said.
“Tragically, Rabbi Bakshi-Doron contracted the coronavirus and doctors’ efforts to save him did not succeed,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
As of Sunday, Israel had reported 11,145 cases of the coronavirus and 103 deaths.
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Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Peter Cooney
Image: The Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem’s Old City, is empty Friday, April 10, 2020. Christians are commemorating Jesus’ crucifixion without the solemn church services or emotional processions of past years, marking Good Friday in a world locked down by the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
