Reuven Elbaz

He is the founder and head of the Ohr Hachaim network of institutions, which operates educational, humanitarian, prison, and drug rehabilitation programs in 350 branches across Israel.

After the Six-Day War, Israeli and American Jews experienced a religious awakening, leading to the establishment of yeshivas and programs aimed at baalei teshuva (returnees to the faith).

[7] Rav Elbaz was known to frequent pool halls and coffee shops around Jerusalem to speak with young people, and sent cars blaring religious music and messages through low-income secular neighborhoods.

[1] He also traveled around the country, from the Golan Heights in the north to Eilat in the south, to meet with young secular Jews in the entertainment venues they frequented and talk with them about religion.

[10] Beginning in the 1970s, Rav Elbaz worked with young Sephardi Jews involved in crime, encouraging them to return to mitzvah observance, and was also asked by government officials to speak with parolees.

[1] Besides its educational program, Yeshivat Ohr Hachaim is known for the huge attendance it garners for its nightly Selichot prayers in Elul, the Hebrew month preceding Rosh Hashana.

[10] On one night in 2014, hundreds of Israeli Air Force officers and soldiers came to the yeshivah to participate in the Selichot prayers and also hear a special shiur from Rabbi Elbaz.

[10] He gives a regular Tuesday-night shiur to a mixed audience of Torah scholars and baalebatim (working men),[1] and speaks weekly on a radio program.

[2] In advance of Passover 2015, Rav Elbaz established his own Badatz Ohr HaHidur kosher certification agency, affixing his hechsher to matzot.

In April 2008, Rav Elbaz received a suspended sentence of eight months and a 120,000 NIS fine for "facilitating and accepting bribes and conspiracy to commit fraud".