Rafael Halperin (Hebrew: רפאל הלפרין; 1924 – 20 August 2011) was an Austrian-born Israeli Orthodox rabbi, businessman, athlete, professional wrestler, and bodybuilder.

The Halperin family moved to Bnei Brak the following year, and Rafael studied in Haifa and Jerusalem as a teenager.

Halperin decided that he wanted to open a chain of athletic facilities, so he began wrestling professionally to earn the necessary money.

He refused to follow the “scripts” used in professional wrestling and declared that he “came to America to wrestle representing the State of Israel and the Jewish people and could not fake or be phony.”[8] He earned the displeasure of some promoters and fellow wrestlers because he treated his matches as legitimate athletic contests rather than a scripted performance.

[3] His top triumphs were over Lu Kim, Lord Carlton, Zebra Kid and Steve Stanlee.

This was Halperin's last match and after he retired from professional wrestling, he started to study karate and mixed martial arts in Japan.

To combat this "desecration" of the holy day, Halperin led an initiative to create a credit card containing a chip that renders it inoperable on Saturday.