Yosef Mizrachi (Hebrew: יוסף מזרחי) is a Sefardi Haredi rabbi and founder of DivineInformation.com, an Orthodox Judaism outreach organization, based in Monsey, New York.
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Early life and career
Yosef Mizrachi was born in 1968 in Israel. After his mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces he worked in finance in New York City. In 1994, Mizrachi began dedicating himself to Orthodox Judaism outreach, and in 1997, Mizrachi left his professional career and began learning and teaching Torah at Yeshivat Ohr Yisrael in Monsey.
Mizrachi discussed his Semikhah (rabbinical ordination) credentials in a January 9, 2016 radio interview with Zev Brenner. When asked if he has Semikhah, Mizrachi stated that he lacks such Semikhah which involves testing and is common among Synagogue rabbis. However, Mizrachi went on to explain that he has received certification in recognition of his Torah background by Rabbi Eliyahu Ben Haim qualifying him to be a rabbi.
Kiruv work
Mizrachi founded a Kiruv organization in 1995. The organization provides free DVDs, Audio CDs, and MP3 CDs, sponsored by donors. As of 2013, the organization has handed out thousands of these audio and video disks. Mizrachi offers an extended ethical audio and video lecture series, called "The Path of the Just", based on the musar text Mesillat Yesharim composed by Moshe Chaim Luzzatto.
In 2001 Mizrachi opened a Kolel and a Yeshiva in Alfandari Street, Jerusalem.
In 2002 a movie called Divine Information was produced by Mizrahi and Yuval Ovadia. Two years later, in 2004, Mizrachi launched the "DivineInformation.com" website posting many of his video and audio lectures.
Controversies
In early 2014, before a lecture tour in London, concern was expressed about statements by Mizrachi in his previous lectures relating to the behaviour of secular and religious Jews during the Holocaust suggesting that Down's Syndrome and autism are "punishments for sins committed in a previous life" and among others. Mizrachi was criticized for his views while he explicitly maintains are "Torah sourced." His views also include lectures using Bible Codes to "explain" the Holocaust. As a result, at least one of his planned lectures in London was initially cancelled.
In December 2015, in one of his lectures, Mizrahi claimed that it is possible that only one million Jews died in The Holocaust as opposed to the well accepted figure of 6 million, since many of them were not Jewish according to Jewish law which requires a person's mother to be Jewish. Mizrahi was criticized by academics and Jewish leaders including Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who said that he "made up history to suit an agenda." He was also criticized by Berel Wein who stated that "It is too damaging a matter to be left unanswered and unrefuted." Later Mizrahi issued an apology. According to The Times, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has spoken out against the travel plans of this "Jewish hate preacher"; and the UK Home Office has suggested that the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, was considering banning Mizrahi should he apply to visit Britain.
In December 2016, 16 prominent US rabbis issued an open letter about Mizrachi. They said that Mizrachi "reduce[s] complex issues to simplistic and misleading sound bites," and his assertions are "objectionable, and even dangerous." The letter continued that institutions should be more "discerning" with the guests they invite.