ABSTRACT
Whenever parliamentary elections were approaching in Israel, in the streets you could often happen upon posters of a charismatic man in dark glasses, wrapped in an embroidered robe and wearing a hat that resembled a turban. However, he was not a Muslim dignitary from one of the parties of Israeli Arabs, as it may have seemed to an uninformed person. The man on the posters was Ovadia Yosef – probably the most influential rabbi to have ever been active in Israeli politics. The robe in which he most often appeared in public is a traditional ceremonial robe of the Chief Sephardi Rabbi, decorated with oriental embroidery. Just as the garments of ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews resemble the ceremonial robes once worn in Eastern Europe, Sephardi Jews from the Arab world, including their highest authorities, sometimes wear clothes that are similar to Arabic apparel.
