Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was the founder of the Orthodox “Shas” party, and was known by Israel’s Haredi and Mizrahi communities as an enormously important talmudic scholar and spiritual leader. Originally from Iraq, Yosef would eventually rise to the level of Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv. His controversial statements regarding the Holocaust, the role of women, and the IDF were harshly criticized by many in Israeli political society. Nonetheless, Shah was instrumental in cementing the Shas party as a formidable Orthodox movement.