Rabbi Uri Zohar, an actor, comedian, screenwriter and director who was a cultural icon in Israel before embracing religion and becoming a prominent Haredi rabbi, passed away Thursday at age 86.
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The funeral procession is scheduled to depart from Zohar's home on Zichron Yaakov St. in Jerusalem toward the Givat Shaul cemetery.
Zohar was born in Tel Aviv in 1935. He served in an IDF entertainment troupe and after he was released helped found the group Batzal Yarok ("Green Onion") group with other graduates of the troupe along with help from performer Shaike Ofir on sketches.
At the end of the 1950s, he co-founded the production company Hateatron Ha'amamiand performed music in Jaffa.
When Israeli television was born, Zohar hosted and performed on many programs while also appearing in movies and commercials.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Zohar headed the "Lul" troupe – a group of artists who had a great influence on modern Israeli culture. Members included Arik Einstein, Shalom Hanoch, Yehonatan Gefen, and others.
At the end of the 1970s, Zohar found religion after he met with Rabbi Yitzhak Shlomo Zilberman and embraced the ultra-Orthodox lifestyle, shocking much of the secular public. In 1977, he abandoned the entertainment world entirely and began studying in yeshiva full time. Since then, he has given few media interviews.
As a rabbi, Zohar mentored the newly religious and recorded broadcasts about embracing the religious life that played on telephones. In sermons, he preached against the secular lifestyle.
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