Shlomo Amar

Shlomo Moshe Amar (Hebrew: שלמה משה עמר; Arabic: سليمان موسى عمار; born April 1, 1948) is the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel. He served in the position of Rishon LeZion from 2003 to 2013; his Ashkenazi counterpart during his tenure was Yona Metzger. In 2014 he became the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.

Amar was born in Casablanca, Morocco, to Eliyahu and Mima (Miriam) Amar. His family immigrated to Israel in 1962 when he was 14. He studied in the Ponovezh Yeshiva. He transferred to a small Yeshiva in the northern town of Shlomi, where at age 19, was appointed the rabbi of the town. At age 20 he also served as the head of kashrut for the city of Nahariyya.

Amar studied dayanut in Haifa under Rabbi Yaakov Nissan Rosenthal. Amar was a close associate and student of the spiritual leader of the Shas party and former Sephardi Chief Rabbi, Ovadia Yosef. Before his appointment as Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Amar had served as the head of the Petah Tikva Rabbinical Court. He was elected chief rabbi of Tel Aviv in 2002, the first sole Chief Rabbi of the city.

Shlomo and his wife, Mazal Sabag, have 12 children. His daughter Yehudit Rachel is married to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the son of Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, and grandson of Ovadia Yosef.

As the former Rishon LeZion, Amar serves as the spiritual leader of the Sephardic community in the Land of Israel. Jews from around the world continue to look to him as a leader.

Shlomo Amar worked heavily to bring the Falash Mura to Israel, and stated "that anyone related to a member of Beta Israel through matrilineal descent qualified as Jewish and should be brought to Israel by the government". In January 2004, following the recommendations of the Knesset and the Chief Rabbis, Ariel Sharon announced a plan (still^[when?] largely unimplemented) to bring all of the Falash Mura (presently close to 18,000) to Israel by the end of 2007. He stated in 2008,“We are all culpable, and we are all to blame for not bringing Ethiopia’s Jewry home (reference to the Falash Mura) with the rest of the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Amar, following a heated debate concerning governmental policy towards Ethiopian immigrants. “No amount of heartfelt words can change that fact.” More recently, Shlomo Amar has ruled that descendants of Ethiopian Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity are "unquestionably Jews in every respect". With the consent of Ovadia Yosef, Amar ruled that it is forbidden to question the Jewishness of this community, pejoratively called Falash Mura.

In 2004, Amar traveled to Portugal to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Lisbon synagogue Shaare Tikvah. During his stay, Amar met descendants of Jewish families persecuted by the Inquisition who still practice Judaism (Bnei Anusim) at the house of Rabbi Boaz Pash. A meeting between a Chief Rabbi and Portuguese Marranos (Bnei Anusim) had not happened in centuries. Amar promised to create a committee to evaluate the halakhic status of the community. Due to the delay of the committee to do any work a second community in Lisbon, Comunidade Judaica Masorti Beit Israel, was later established to ensure the recognition of the Bnei Anusim as Jews.

Rav Amar made news in September 2005 when he told a Shinui MK that he was willing to support civil marriages for non-Jews and people who are unaffiliated with a religion. Amar pointed out the difference between his idea and that of his predecessor, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, who had proposed civil marriage for anyone interested in 2004. Amar's plan, by comparison, would only apply to the marriage of non-Jews with each other. Amar stated that his suggestion was designed to solve the problem of Israel's 300,000 religionless, non-Jewish immigrants, many from the former Soviet Union who claim Jewish identity and citizenship, but whose Jewish status may not be accepted by Orthodox standards and the Chief Rabbinate. Amar called on representatives of the non-Jewish immigrants to discuss the matter with representatives of the rabbinate.