Grandson of ex-Chief Rabbi, who called gay people ‘evil’, to marry boyfriend

The grandson of a former Chief Rabbi, who had said “homosexuals are completely evil,” is to marry his long-term boyfriend in a ceremony next week.

Ovadia Cohen, whose grandfather was Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the former spiritual leader of the Shas political party and ex-Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Isreal, will wed his partner Amichai Landsman, reports Tel Aviv-based newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. 

The couple have been together for three years.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef passed away in 2013, aged 93.

Cohen was allegedly close to his grandfather, and had grown up in his home following the divorce of his parents.

“I was blessed with a wonderful family which accepted me from the very first moment, and they accepted Ovadia as well,” Landsman told Yedioth Ahronoth.

“We are fully out and proud. Ovadia took a very brave step to be in a relationship with me and we are happy to get married. I am not part of the religious gay community but I think they do great work.”

An LGBT pride parade in Jerusalem. (Getty)

Cohen had previously been married to a woman, having two children with her before they divorced.

He then came out as gay, and met Landsman, who was raised in a religious-Zionist community in Haifa.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, the pair moved in together before telling their families about their relationship.