Levy, Sion
LEVY, SION
LEVY, SION (1922– ), rabbi, spiritual leader of the Jewish community of Panama. Born in the Old City of Jerusalem to a family of rabbinical ancestry from Morocco, he studied in the Yeshivat Porat Yosef in Jerusalem for 12 years, together with Rabbi Ovadiah *Yosef. After being ordained as a rabbi and as a shoḥet, he was appointed as head of the kashrut department in the Jerusalem rabbinate. In 1955 he was sent to Panama, remaining there as the Sephardi rabbi and spiritual leader.
Rabbi Levy imposed strict Orthodox norms on the Sephardi community, Sociedad Israelita de Beneficencia Shevet Ahim. Serving as a shohet, he controlled the slaughter of animals according to strict halakhic rules. The arrival of a large group of immigrants from Aleppo (Syria), with a long tradition of rabbinical authority, strengthened the position of Rabbi Levy in the Panama Jewish community. The Aleppans, who became the majority group among the Jews of Panama, venerate their rabbi, whose word is received as sacred not only in religious matters but also in economic and social questions.
Levy is a prominent Zionist leader but a tough opponent of Reform Judaism.
[Margalit Bejarano (2nd ed.)]