Departures of note

Rabbi David Shlomo Batzri was a prominent Israeli Kabbalist and the head of Yeshivat Hashalom in Jerusalem. Born and raised in Jerusalem to Rabbi Yosef and Victoria Batzri, he studied at the Porat Yosef yeshiva under Rabbi Yehuda Tzadka and Rabbi Salman Mutzafi, who later became his father-in-law, and pursued rabbinic court studies under Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim. In the early 1970s he headed the Yeshivat Chevrat Ahavat Shalom together with Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Hillel, and later founded Yeshivat Hashalom with his son Rabbi Yitzchak Batzri in the Mekor Baruch neighborhood of Jerusalem, naming it after the famed Kabbalist Rabbi Shalom Sharabi. At his yeshiva he conducted tikkunim for the souls of the deceased, for finding marriage partners, healing, livelihood, and family harmony, and on several occasions performed rituals aimed at expelling dybbuks. Batzri was also known for a series of inflammatory public statements, including remarks about Hurricane Katrina, about gay people, and about Arabs, which led to a 2006 indictment for incitement to racism that was resolved through a plea agreement. Several of his sons and brothers became prominent rabbis and dayanim. He died at the age of 85 after collapsing at his home in Bnei Brak.