Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel

Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel was born in 1880 in Jerusalem

Uziel was born in Jerusalem in 1880. His father, Rabbi Joseph Raphael Uziel, headed the Sephardi rabbinical court in the city. He married young and lost his father as a teenager, and as the eldest son he had to work while he studied.

He studied at the Doresh Zion study house and later at the Tiferet Yerushalayim yeshiva. He became a teacher there and later its head. He also founded the Mahazikei Torah yeshiva for young Sephardi men.

In 1911 he became Hakham Bashi of Jaffa and worked closely with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. During World War I the Ottoman authorities exiled him to Damascus over his protests against the persecution of Jews, but he was allowed to return. He served as chief rabbi of Salonika from 1921 and of Tel Aviv from 1923.

In 1939 he was appointed Sephardi chief rabbi, and from 1948 he held the post in the State of Israel until his death in 1953. He sat on the Jewish National Council and founded the Sha'ar Zion yeshiva. He supported scientific knowledge, opposed religious coercion, and ruled that women may vote and hold public office.